Footage shows huge flames at the industrial site in Kstovo hundreds of miles from the frontline in Ukraine

A huge blaze has erupted at an oil refinery in a Russian town that was hit by Ukrainian drones earlier this year.

Footage shows a fire raging at the industrial site in Kstovo, around 500 miles from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

A thick column of black smoke poured from the plant, reportedly the Lukoil oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

In January, four drones hit the Lukoil company depot, causing significant damage.

It comes after Ukraine’s audacious drone attacks on Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet last weekend which saw a number of Vladimir Putin’s aircraft wiped out.

Ukraine claims that it targeted 41 strategic bombers in “Operation Spider’s Web”, adding that “at least” 13 were destroyed.

Security officials say the shock incursion took 18 months to plan and saw many drones smuggled into Russia.

Saturday’s blaze at the refinery followed a large Russian drone and missile attack which targeted the city of Kharkiv and killed at least three people and injured 21.

The barrage included deadly aerial glide bombs that have become part of fierce Russian attacks in the three-year war.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defences shot down and neutralised 87 drones and seven missiles.

Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.

“To put an end to Russia’s killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine,” he said.

In this image taken from video released June 1, 2025, by a source in the Ukrainian Security Service shows a Ukrainian drone striking Russian planes deep in Russia's territory. (Source in the Ukrainian Security Service via AP)Last weekend, Ukrainian drones struck military planes deep in Russia’s territory. (Photo: Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday its forces carried out a night-time strike on Ukrainian military targets, including ammunition depots, drone assembly workshops, and weaponry repair stations.

There was no comment from Moscow on the reports of casualties in Kharkiv.

Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes also damaged 18 blocks of flats and 13 private homes.

Terekhov said it was “the most powerful attack” on the city since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Kharkiv’s regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said two districts in the city were struck with three missiles, five aerial glide bombs and 48 drones. Among the injured were two children, a baby boy and a 14-year-old girl, he added.

In the Dnipropetrovsk province further south, two women aged 45 and 88 were injured, according to local governor Serhii Lysak.

Russian shelling also killed a couple in their fifties in the southern city of Kherson, close to the front lines, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported in a Facebook post.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, over southern and western Russia, including near the capital.

Drone debris injured two civilians in the suburbs of Moscow, local governor Andrei Vorobyov reported.

The attack on Kharkiv comes one day after Russia launched one of the fiercest barrages on Ukraine, striking six Ukrainian territories and killing at least six people and injuring about 80.

Among the dead were three emergency responders in Kyiv, one person in Lutsk and two people in Chernihiv.

Although Ukraine was hit by one of the largest drone strikes since the war began on Friday, Ukrainian drones also targeted a Russian fuel depot situated near to a strategic bomber air base.

Pictures on social media showed the Engels oil refinery, based in Saratov Oblast in western Russia, engulfed in flames.

The oil refinery is situated near one of Russia’s key airfields, housing long-range bombers including the Tu-95 and Tu-160.

Ukraine has offered an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and a meeting between its President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock.

But the Kremlin has effectively rejected a truce and has not budged from its demands.

US President Donald Trump said this week that Putin told him Moscow would respond to Ukraine’s attack on Russian military airfields last Sunday.