Despite the blows: the level of oil refining in Russia has almost not changed, — Reuters

Ukraine has increased the number of attacks on oil refineries, oil depots and oil pipelines in an attempt to disable them, thereby paralyzing Russia's main source of funding for the war against Ukraine. Many attacks occurred at the beginning of 2025, and since August they have been carried out regularly again. Ukrainian drones have carried out at least 58 attacks on 17 large oil refineries in Russia.

Because of this, the Russian Federation had to limit the export of fuel, as well as order additional means of protection against drones. According to Reuters, in the period between August and October 2025, when drone attacks intensified again, due to drone strikes and scheduled maintenance, the Russian Federation was forced to withdraw about 20% of its refinery capacity. At the same time, it reduced the total volumes of oil refining by only 6%, to about 5.

1 million barrels per day (300 thousand barrels per day less than in the same period last year). In general, in 2025, oil refining decreased to 220 million barrels (5. 2 million barrels per day), which is only 3% less than in 2024. Three industry sources told Reuters that Russian refineries were not usually operating at full capacity, so they were able to mitigate the effects of the attacks by running backup units at both damaged and undamaged plants.

It was also possible to repair damage to a part of the refinery. The total capacity of the Russian Federation for oil processing is 6. 6 million barrels per day, but, according to sources, the capacity is almost not fully used. The International Energy Agency said Russia's revenues from the sale of crude oil and petroleum products fell to one of the lowest levels since the start of the full-scale war in August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said last month that the long-range strikes could reduce the supply of gasoline to Russia by one-fifth. At the same time, the Kremlin claims that the fuel market in the Russian Federation remains stable. In the first quarter of 2025, Ukraine attacked six large oil refineries — Ryazan, Volgograd, Saratov, Tuapsin, Ufa, and Astrakhan.

And since the beginning of August, Ukrainian drones have also attacked factories in Novokuibyshevsk, Kyrishy, ​​and Salavat. In addition, due to Western sanctions, the Russian Federation has more problems with obtaining spare parts that could help in the modernization of oil refineries. Russian firms have said they have found a way to find equipment on the domestic market or import it from China. And successful repair works allow oil refineries to resume operation within several weeks.