Ukraine Has Paralyzed Nearly Half of Russia's Refinery Capacity — Financial Times
Ukraine’s large-scale long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries have been one of the key factors behind Russia’s most severe fuel crisis in recent decades. As a result of the attacks, nearly half of Russia’s nominal oil refining capacity was taken out of service.
According to the publication, Ukrainian attacks have led to the shutdown of more than 30% of the actual capacity and more than 45% of the nominal capacity of Russian oil refineries. At the same time, repairs to the damaged facilities are proceeding slowly, meaning the effects of the strikes are being felt for many weeks and even months.
FT journalists analyzed data from S&P Global Energy and satellite imagery of Russia’s largest oil refineries. It turned out that a number of facilities have still not resumed full operations. In particular, at the time of the analysis, the refineries in Kirishi, Tuapse, Samara, and Syzran were not processing any oil at all.
Experts note that even after production resumes, it will take these facilities more than a year to return to pre-war productivity levels.
The publication also emphasizes that the situation could worsen, as Russian countermeasures against drones are unable to effectively repel massive Ukrainian attacks.
According to publicly available data, since the beginning of 2026, Russian oil refineries have been struck at least 194 times by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is 11 times more than during the same period last year.
Stefan Meister, head of the Eurasia program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, attributed this trend to Ukraine’s technological breakthrough, which has enabled a significant increase in the production and widespread use of long-range drones.
This was reported by the Financial Times.
As a reminder, the Ukrainian military has moved away from massive strikes on Russian oil refineries and adopted a more precise strategy. According to the Financial Times, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are increasingly targeting critical equipment components, the damage to which could halt operations for an extended period and inflict greater economic losses on Moscow.
The General Staff confirmed strikes on an oil refinery in Perm and a military training ground in occupied Zaporizhzhia.
