Ukraine struck an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region early on Friday, ending a two-week pause in refinery attacks that came amid heavy pressure from the Trump administration to halt such operations.
Photos and video footage posted on social media showed columns of smoke rising into the sky over the Novokuibyshevsk refinery, and a fire was reported at the plant overnight on October 30 following a suspected Ukrainian drone attack. Ukrainian forces last hit an oil refinery on October 15, and had not struck Russian oil infrastructure of any kind since October 20.
The pause that came under pressure from Washington
The unofficial pause began early last week at the height of a crisis in U.S.-Ukrainian relations, according to people with knowledge of the operations cited by The Wall Street Journal. Days earlier, President Donald Trump had called for the removal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Elon Musk's SpaceX had limited Ukraine's use of the Starlink satellite internet service.
Trump has piled pressure on Zelensky in recent weeks to stop hitting Russian refineries, blaming Ukraine for high global fuel prices — a claim energy experts mostly attribute to the U.S.-Iran war. U.S. envoy Jared Kushner repeated Trump's demand to stop hitting Russian refineries at a meeting with Zelensky on October 20 in Oslo, according to two U.S. officials.
Ukrainian units involved in long-range strikes were told in mid-October that the campaign against refineries was effectively on hold, once missions already in motion were completed, said two military officials familiar with the matter. On October 20, Ukraine hit an oil pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline in Russia's Tambov region — the last attack on Russian oil infrastructure until now.
A strike despite advice to wait until after the midterms
The decision to hit Novokuibyshevsk came despite advice from European allies for Kyiv to hold off until after the U.S. midterm elections, to reduce the recent tensions between Zelensky and Trump. Some of Kyiv's staunchest European backers had grown worried about the heated rhetoric between Trump and Zelensky and the Starlink disruption, and nudged Zelensky to pause refinery strikes until after the midterms, one European official said.
Ukraine's government has not announced a pause in refinery strikes. Zelensky has said Ukraine wants more protection for its own energy infrastructure — which Russia has been systematically destroying with missile and drone attacks ahead of winter — in exchange for holding off.
"Our guys tried to be a little more careful during these days. But they do not have an order" not to hit refineries, Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to the Journal. Ukraine's Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara told Zelensky that the military had sensed it was best to hold off on refinery strikes because of the delicate diplomatic situation, a person familiar with the matter said. Zelensky said that was fine, but stressed that the military was free to hit refineries again if it chose to, the person said.
Ukraine's campaign against Russian refineries has been aimed at undermining oil revenues that help finance Moscow's invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukraine's reliance on Starlink, U.S. intelligence-sharing and Patriot missile interceptors has left it vulnerable to U.S. pressure, even though Trump ended the bulk of American military and financial aid for Kyiv when he returned to the White House last year.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Times Now.