Drozdenko did not report a fire in his statement. Footage from witnesses reviewed by the outlet Astra identified the target as the Kirishi oil refinery (KINEF). After several powerful explosions at the site, at least two fires broke out, according to Astra. The monitoring channel Supernova+ said three oil processing units may have been damaged, and Astra reported that one of the primary processing units caught fire.
Residents of Kirishi reported air defense activity and powerful explosions near the plant, as well as the evacuation of an apartment building. Drozdenko said a family was evacuated from one apartment after debris struck it. Debris also landed on the roof of a multi-story residential building in Vsevolozhsk, with the consequences still being clarified. The governor later announced that the drone alert had been lifted.
KINEF is located about 100 km southeast of St Petersburg and is part of the Surgutneftegas group. The plant's design capacity is 20-21 million tonnes of oil a year, and in recent years it has processed about 18 million tonnes. It accounts for roughly 7% of Russia's oil refining and supplies aviation kerosene to Pulkovo Airport and fuel to northwestern Russia.
In 2025, Surgutneftegas was placed under sanctions by the United States, the United Kingdom and the EU, and the KINEF plant was named in the sanctions documents. The Kirishi refinery has been attacked by drones repeatedly. After a strike in late August, the plant fully halted oil refining because two primary processing units were damaged.
Ukraine has not officially commented on the strikes on the plant. According to The Moscow Times, in late October the Ukrainian Armed Forces resumed attacks on Russian refineries after a two-week pause prompted by a demand from US President Donald Trump to stop the strikes. After that, attacks hit Rosneft's Novokuibyshevsk refinery, Bashneft's plant in Ufa, NORSI in Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Ryazan and Saratov refineries, the Afipsky refinery, and Transneft's Samara linear production dispatch station.