Ukrainian drone forces struck the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (NORSI) refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and the Port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea overnight on April 5, 2026, pressing ahead with attacks on Russian energy infrastructure that allied governments have asked Kyiv to halt.
👀 Ukrainian drones struck key Russian energy sites overnight.
Targets included the Transneft-linked Primorsk oil port and Lukoil’s refinery in Kstovo, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces reported on April 5.
🔗 https://t.co/1K93csod4K pic.twitter.com/KspKYFGkco
— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) April 5, 2026
Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, confirmed both strikes on April 5. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that foreign allies asked Kyiv to pause drone attacks on Russian refineries as the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, now in its sixth week, drives global fuel prices higher.
❗️Tonight, operators from the 🇺🇦1st Separate Center of Unmanned Systems Forces, the 🇺🇦414th Separate Brigade “Birds of Magyar”, and the 🇺🇦413th Separate Regiment “Raid” carried out a series of strikes on the 🇷🇺Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod… pic.twitter.com/FyFdfpOeOD
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) April 5, 2026
Gleb Nikitin, governor of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, said two facilities at NORSI, Russia’s fourth-largest refinery and second-largest petrol producer, caught fire after air defenses repelled 30 drones, with falling debris causing the damage. The plant processes roughly 16 million metric tons of oil per year.
Alexander Drozdenko, governor of Leningrad Oblast, confirmed a fuel reservoir at Primorsk leaked after shrapnel impact, correcting an earlier statement that only a pipeline was hit.
The strikes deepen a supply disruption already weeks in the making. Primorsk has not accepted diesel fuel shipments since March 22, industry sources said.
Finnish maritime officials told Reuters that weekly vessel traffic from Primorsk and the nearby Ust-Luga terminal has fallen to individual ships, down from a prior weekly average of 40 to 50.
Refineries normally routing exports through those terminals are now weighing more expensive rail routes to alternative outlets.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued a temporary license on March 12 allowing countries to purchase Russian oil stranded at sea, an effort to stabilize prices pushed higher by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The April 5 strikes targeted the same terminals that license was designed to keep active.
Ukrainian forces also struck an aviation equipment warehouse at Saky air base in occupied Crimea on April 5, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated.
