Russia's oil refining attacked again: refinery in Samara burns

In Samara, Russia, on the night of September 22, a fire broke out at the Kuibyshev oil refinery, part of Rosneft, after a drone attack. The location of the fire was determined by Astra based on videos and photos from eyewitnesses.

Residents of Samara region reported a series of explosions overnight. Footage posted after the attack shows a strong fire and a large column of smoke over the industrial zone. Astra geolocated the materials filmed by eyewitnesses via OSINT analysis and concluded that the fire is exactly on the territory of the Kuibyshev refinery.

Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of Samara region, confirmed a massive drone attack on the region. According to him, Russian air defense forces and mobile fire groups shot down "dozens" of drones, and the targets were industrial enterprises.

"Dozens of drones were shot down. The enemy targeted industrial enterprises", Fedorishchev stated.

However, the Russian official did not report a fire directly at the Kuibyshev refinery. He reported damage to civilian objects, including private houses and cars, and noted that the operational headquarters is clarifying the consequences of the attack. There was no mention of deaths or injuries in this message.

Footage of the fire at the enterprise was also posted during the morning by the monitoring channel Exilenova+. However, there is no official confirmation of the specific nature of the damage to the plant's equipment at the time of publication.

The Kuibyshev refinery is one of the enterprises of Rosneft's Samara group. According to the company, its primary refining capacity is about 7 million tons of oil per year. The plant produces, in particular, motor gasoline, diesel and other types of fuel.

The enterprise has repeatedly been targeted. According to Astra, in August 2025 the plant suspended operations after a drone strike, and in March 2024 one of its units was damaged. Another production shutdown after an attack was recorded on June 10, 2026.

The new attack occurred amid systematic strikes on Russian oil refining infrastructure. The day before, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that as of September 21, after a series of strikes, more than 45% of Russia's oil refining design capacity had been taken out of operation. According to the General Staff, one of the consequences was a drop in the production of gasoline and diesel fuel of the Euro-5/K5 standard.

Ukrainian military at the time of publication had not separately reported a strike specifically on the Kuibyshev refinery on September 22.