The Library Media — National & World · World Desk
By Maya Wilson
Follow The Library Media: 🌐 https://thelibraryestate.com/ · 📘 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61596264545387 · 🧵 https://www.threads.com/@diegoandcatalinaclarke · 📸 https://www.instagram.com/diegoandcatalinaclarke · 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/libraryestate.bsky.social · ✖ https://x.com/LibraryEstate · 📰 https://diegoclarke.substack.com
Russia and Ukraine exchanged heavy overnight strikes, with Ukrainian drones setting fire to one of Russia’s largest oil refineries while Russian attacks targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine, according to reports from Al Jazeera and Reuters. The escalation comes as fuel shortages spread across parts of Russia and Ukrainian power supplies face renewed pressure, with the United Nations Security Council scheduled to meet on the war today.
Ukrainian drones struck the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s Leningrad region overnight, setting the facility ablaze, Al Jazeera reported. Reuters also reported the attack, with regional governor Alexander Drozdenko confirming the strike on Monday. The refinery is Russia’s second-largest, making the incident a significant blow to the country’s oil-processing infrastructure.
Al Jazeera reported that Russian air defences had shot down 113 Ukrainian drones. That figure is a Russian claim, rather than an independently established count.
Russia, meanwhile, carried out overnight strikes targeting Ukrainian energy sites, Al Jazeera reported. The attacks followed Sunday’s reported strikes on electricity infrastructure and shipping. Reuters said Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed Russian forces had hit two electricity substations in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions, as well as three cargo vessels: a container ship at Odesa and another at Chornomorsk. Moscow said the vessels were carrying military goods.
Reuters said it could not independently verify the Russian Defence Ministry’s claims, and Ukraine had not commented on them.
Ukrainian energy company DTEK gave a separate account of the impact on electricity supplies. It said a Russian overnight attack on energy facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region had left more than 600,000 people without electricity, Reuters reported.
The reported civilian death toll from the overnight exchanges also requires care. Al Jazeera’s headline reported at least four people killed in the strikes. A video summary published by the same outlet on the same attacks gave a lower figure, saying at least one person had died — a woman killed by falling drone debris. The two figures are Al Jazeera’s separate reports; they should not be treated as a single reconciled count.
The attack on Kirishi comes amid an intensified Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil infrastructure. Reuters reported that fuel shortages had returned to at least half a dozen Russian regions following Ukrainian strikes on at least eight major oil refineries over the past two weeks.
The shortages have prompted local restrictions. In Karelia, the region’s head, Artur Parfenchikov, said on Sunday that highway filling stations were limiting sales to 30 litres of gasoline and 50 litres of diesel per customer.
Reuters reported that Ukraine sharply increased its attacks on Russian refineries after October 30, when President Donald Trump’s self-declared energy ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow failed to take hold. The renewed campaign has put pressure on facilities that process fuel for domestic use, as well as on the wider distribution system.
The Kirishi strike adds another major refinery to the list of sites hit during the recent escalation. Its fire is also a visible sign of the vulnerability of energy infrastructure far from the front lines. The reported shortages in several regions suggest that the consequences of the campaign are being felt beyond the immediate locations of the attacks.
For Ukraine, the Russian strikes on energy sites raise a parallel concern as winter approaches. The United Nations says attacks on energy infrastructure are threatening millions of people with another cold and dark winter, while civilian deaths are climbing sharply.
The UN Security Council is due to convene today at 10 a.m. in New York to discuss Ukraine, according to UN News. The meeting will take place as both sides continue to target infrastructure and as the humanitarian consequences of the war remain a central concern for international officials.
The timing is significant. The Security Council meeting comes on the eve of U.S.-backed talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi. The planned discussions offer a diplomatic track even as the military exchanges continue.
Al Jazeera’s preview of the Abu Dhabi talks was headlined “No concession,” reflecting the difficult ground on which the negotiations are expected to begin. The talks are due to bring the parties together, but the overnight strikes underline the distance between continued military operations and the prospect of a negotiated settlement.
The two governments’ accounts of attacks on energy infrastructure also remain contested in important respects. Russia’s Defence Ministry claims about substations and cargo vessels have not been independently verified by Reuters, while DTEK’s account of the power outage in Dnipropetrovsk is attributed to the Ukrainian company. The distinction matters as officials and diplomats assess the scale and consequences of the latest exchange.
For now, the immediate picture is one of reciprocal pressure on infrastructure: a major Russian refinery burning after a Ukrainian drone strike, Ukrainian energy sites hit by Russian attacks, and renewed fuel and electricity disruption on both sides.
The Security Council will meet as the diplomatic calendar turns toward Abu Dhabi. Whether those talks can make progress will be tested against the same central obstacle visible in the overnight strikes: neither side has halted attacks, and critical energy infrastructure remains exposed.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk, The Library Media
From The Library — the estate of our family.
