Video footage from Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region shared on November 1 appears to show the LukOil refinery in flames following a "massive drone attack."

Moscow Reports Drone Attack On Nizhny Novgorod As Russian Strikes Cut Power In Ukraine

01 Nov 2026, 11:20 by RFE/RL · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

Russian authorities said more than 100 drones were destroyed in a massive overnight attack on its Nizhny Novgorod region on November 1, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of striking infrastructure in four regions in Ukraine overnight, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

The announcement from Russia came less than 24 hours after the Ukrainian military said it targeted the Russian state-owned Kombinat Kamensky chemical and defense enterprise in Russia's Rostov region, an attack that Zelenkskyy confirmed on November 1 had caused tens of millions of dollars' worth of damage.

The governor of Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin, said that an "industrial enterprise" in the Kstovo district had been struck by a "massive drone attack" on November 1, causing "significant damage."

Ukrainian media reports said the strike had hit the LukOil refinery in Kstovo as well as the combined heat and power plant in Novogorkovskaya.

Nikitin said that more than 100 drones were destroyed in the overnight attack, adding that no casualties had been reported so far.

Zelenskyy said on November 1 that Russia attacked energy infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions overnight, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

"Just this night, our energy sector in four regions was under Russian attacks: Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky. These are substations, transformers, and power lines that provide electricity to our people's homes," he wrote on Telegram.

"Repair crews are working everywhere. As of now, hundreds of thousands of families remain without electricity," he said, adding that this week along Russia has launched 1,940 strike drones, over 1,580 CABs, and 44 missiles of various types over Ukraine, 36 of which are ballistic.

"The intensity of the strikes is very high, and the Russians are trying to take maximum advantage of the shortage of ballistic interceptors," he added.

A statement from the Ukrainian military said Russian forces attacked the country with 433 drones on November 1. It said the drones were fired from Orel and Shatalovo in Russia, as well as the Russian-occupied region of Donetsk. There was no comment yet about casualties.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 371 Russian Shahed drones, the military added.

Russia has accelerated strikes on Ukraine's civilian populated areas and energy infrastructure ahead of the winter. In retaliation, Ukraine is targeting Russia oil and gas sites.

On October 31, the Ukrainian military claimed it had targeted the Russian state-owned Kombinat Kamensky chemical and defense enterprise in the Rostov region with drones and Neptune coastal missile systems.

It said that a "fire at a finished-products warehouse has been confirmed," with damage reported to four production workshops, adding that the facility manufactures solid rocket propellant for ammunition used by multiple Russian missile systems.

Commenting on the strike, Zelenskyy praised the military's "long-range sanctions" in the Rostov region. He said that in addition to the Kamensky plant, "the Pantsir-S2 complex and the command and staff vehicle of the S-400 Triumph system were also hit. The total cost of the hit air defense facilities is about 70 million dollars."

The Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, is a strategically important industrial and logistics hub in southwestern Russia. Earlier in October, Reuters reported that Russia had nearly finished building a major new base for launching jet-powered drones there in just six weeks.

Citing satellite imagery, the report said the site had been an empty field as of the end of August and had become a complex facility covering an area equivalent to around 126 soccer fields by mid-October.

Rostov has been under Ukrainian aerial attacks since September. The Ukrainian Security Service had earlier claimed to have targeted a number of "Russian aerial assets" in a special operation at a military airfield in the regional capital, Rostov-on-Don.

Last Day Of Oleshky Cease-Fire

The evacuation of residents from the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky had been completed as Moscow and Kyiv continued an agreed cease-fire in effect through November 1.

The localized cease-fire was brokered by US first lady Melania Trump.

Earlier, buses filled with civilians left the war-torn area for the first time in more than four years without incident.

On October 30, Russian ⁠human rights ombudswoman Yana Lantratova said in a social media post they are concluding the humanitarian mission ⁠in Oleshky. ‌"We are currently in the territory of Armyansk (in northern Crimea)," she said in a video posted on Telegram, adding that both sides had praised the high standard of its organization.

Zelenskyy, thanking the United States and Trump for their mediation, later said those residents of Oleshky who wished to travel to Ukraine have crossed into the country on October 31.

Meanwhile, as Russian and Ukrainian officials are tipped to be meeting in Abu Dhabi in mid-November, a senior Russian official said Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond if the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy wished to speak to him by phone.

"I think he will, of course. Putin has never refused to talk," Putin aide Yuri Ushakov was quoted as telling Russian media on November 1. Ushakov added that Zelenskyy was welcome to come to Moscow for talks with the Russian leader -- an offer the Ukrainian president has repeatedly rejected, arguing that Moscow is not an acceptable venue while Russia continues its full-scale war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Moscow Reports Drone Attack On Nizhny Novgorod As Russian Strikes Cut Power In Ukraine

Moscow Reports Drone Attack On Nizhny Novgorod As Russian Strikes Cut Power In Ukraine

Last Day Of Oleshky Cease-Fire

This item is part of