Drone attack damages industrial site at Kstovo, Russian governor says, as Kyiv denies agreeing to US-proposed refinery strike pause

Neither side’s claims about the strikes can be independently confirmed.

A “massive drone attack” overnight into Sunday 1 November caused “significant damage” to an industrial enterprise in the Kstovo district, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said. He said more than 100 drones were destroyed and that, according to preliminary information, there were no casualties. He did not name the site. The district is home to the NORSI (Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez) refinery, one of Russia’s largest. Ukrainian monitoring channels reported the refinery was hit; Kyiv did not immediately claim the attack, Reuters reported.

The regional government urged drivers to “buy fuel only as needed and avoid panic buying”, Interfax reported.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on 30 October that Ukraine had resumed attacks on Russian refineries after “a brief pause”. The Wall Street Journal had reported on 29 October that Kyiv agreed to pause the strikes under US pressure. Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Independent that US envoy Jared Kushner “suggested that we not hit refineries for 30 days”, but that “nobody had given such an order”. Kremlin officials, including aide Yuri Ushakov, said Kyiv was “simply ignoring” US President Donald Trump’s wishes, The Guardian and Anadolu reported.

Background: Ukraine has struck Russian oil and gas sites throughout the war, saying they fund Russia’s military. Russia says such strikes target civilian infrastructure. For the Samara refinery strike, see our earlier report.