Massive drone attack on Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region; fire reported at Lukoil's Kstovo refinery, one of the country's largest
Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region came under a "massive" drone attack overnight and on the morning of Sunday, 1 November, Governor Gleb Nikitin said, with more than 100 drones destroyed and "significant damage" to an industrial enterprise in the Kstovo district. He did not name the plant, but residents' footage and monitoring channels showed a large fire at Lukoil's Kstovo refinery (Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez, or NORSI), one of Russia's largest. Ukraine's military had not officially claimed the strike at the time of publication.
Nikitin said damage to civilian infrastructure and property was still being assessed and emergency crews were at the scene. He warned that while repairs are under way there may be temporary power cuts and reduced hot water and heating in some residential buildings. He first reported no casualties, then said a woman in a car had been hurt by falling drone debris; she was treated in hospital and sent home. Nizhny Novgorod mayor Yuri Shalabayev said a municipal utility facility in the Kstovo district was also damaged, and Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal case for terrorism, RIA Novosti reported.
The governor did not say which plant was hit. Ukrainian monitoring channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+, and the independent Russian outlet ASTRA citing residents, said it was the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery. Footage of the blaze began spreading in the early hours of Sunday. Exilenova+ said, as a first estimate, that the fire was near the AVT-5 and AVT-6 primary crude units and a visbreaking unit, and it also reported a possible hit on the nearby Novogorkovskaya heat and power plant. Neither claim has been confirmed. Later in the morning, Fire Point, the Ukrainian maker of FP-1 long-range drones, said it had confirmed damage and a fire at the refinery, LIGA.net reported. Ukraine's General Staff had not commented by the time of publication, and neither Russian officials nor Lukoil have said which units were hit or whether processing has stopped.
The video posted on X by Ukrainian commentator Anton Gerashchenko, with English subtitles, is a compilation of night-time clips filmed by local people from a distance. It shows a wide orange glow over the industrial zone on the horizon, several bright fires and a thick column of black smoke rising into the dark sky. "It's burning like hell. Something's exploding," one resident says. The clips carry an Exilenova+ watermark.
Residents' footage of the fire in Kstovo:
According to Lukoil documents cited by The Insider, the refinery has a design capacity of 17 million tonnes of crude a year, about 340,000 barrels a day. Reuters describes it as Russia's fourth-largest refinery and its second-largest gasoline producer. It makes gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and bitumen. The plant is about 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and has been attacked at least seven times since April, The Insider counts. After a strike on 26 August, which Ukraine's General Staff confirmed, Reuters sources said it halted crude processing.
Gerashchenko's post said locals were already reporting queues at petrol stations. That has been reported by only one outlet so far, but Interfax said the regional authorities were taking steps to keep fuel at filling stations and asked drivers not to panic-buy. The regional government said, via TASS, that essential services were working normally, that fuel supplies to the region were stable, and that an unscheduled inspection was under way.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences downed 235 Ukrainian drones over 16 regions and the Moscow region between 20:00 on 31 October and 08:00 on 1 November, Moscow time. Kstovo is the third Russian refinery reported hit in three nights, after Novokuybyshevsk in Samara region and the refineries in Ufa. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Kyiv to stop striking Russian refineries, saying the attacks push up fuel prices.