Lukoil Refinery Set Ablaze by Ukraine’s 100-Plus Drone Barrage

According to Kyiv Post sources in Ukraine’s special services, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) launched a drone attack on Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region before dawn on Jan. 29, striking the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery in Kstovo—one of the country’s largest oil facilities.

As a result, the tank farm was heavily damaged, with all four drones successfully hitting their targets. Videos circulating on Russian social media show a large-scale fire at the depot.

Governor Gleb Nikitin reported that firefighters were working to contain the blaze and that no injuries had been reported. The refinery was previously attacked by drones in early 2024, causing equipment damage that took up to two months to repair, during which the facility was not in operation.

Overnight on Jan. 29, Russia faced a large-scale UAV attack, with over 100 drones targeting nine regions. One of the drones was reportedly aimed at a “nuclear power facility” in the Smolensk region, according to speculation by Governor Vasily Anokhin.

The governor did not specify which facility, only that a UAV was intercepted and destroyed in his region, with no casualties or damage reported. However, according to the SHOT telegram channel, debris from the downed drone fell near the Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), near Desnogorsk.

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The commander of Ukraine’s 414th Strike UAV Battalion posted a video showing how a mobile radar detected the incoming UAV and sent its own kamikaze drones to bring it down.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 104 drones over nine regions. The Kursk Oblast recorded the highest number of drones shot down (47), followed by Bryansk (27), Smolensk (11), Tver (7), Belgorod (4), Nizhny Novgorod (3). Additionally, three drones were intercepted over Kaluga, and one each over the Rostov and Leningrad regions.

This attack is the third-largest drone strike on Russia this year, following an attack on Jan. 14 involving more than 200 drones and a Jan. 24 attack, when Ukrainian forces launched over 121 UAVs at Russian military and industrial facilities.