Ukraine unleashed one of its largest drone barrages of the war overnight into Wednesday, setting fire to one of Russia's biggest oil refineries and a major logistics hub, while Russian forces struck back with an attack on a Ukrainian power plant and a deadly hit on a civilian bus in occupied territory.

Drones slammed into the Lukoil-owned NORSI refinery in Kstovo, roughly 500 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, sparking a large fire. The plant is Russia's fourth-largest refinery and its second-biggest gasoline producer, processing up to 17 million tonnes of crude a year and supplying an estimated 11% of the country's petrol. Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the strike, and it marks at least the fifth time this year Kyiv has hit the same facility.

A wave of 16 targets

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck 16 targets inside Russia overnight, including a Wildberries e-commerce warehouse in Kotovsk that a regional governor said was "completely destroyed by fire," covering roughly 100,000 square meters. Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed it shot down 426 Ukrainian drones over the same period. According to Reuters reporting carried by Al Jazeera, at least three people were killed inside Russia — a man and a teenager in a fire started by drone debris in the Lipetsk region, and a woman in the border region of Belgorod.

"The war must return to where it came from," Zelensky said, defending the strikes on Russian territory.

Moscow's forces answered within hours. A guided bomb hit Kherson's combined heat and power plant, the southern Ukrainian city's main source of heating, causing what officials described as serious damage. Separately, Russian-installed authorities in occupied Luhansk said a drone strike hit a passenger bus traveling between Lisichansk and Stakhanov, killing nine people and wounding six — a claim Reuters said it could not independently verify. Russia's Investigative Committee blamed a Ukrainian kamikaze drone, and the United Nations reportedly said the bus attack, if confirmed as described, would raise concerns under international humanitarian law.

The exchange underscores how the war has settled into a grinding pattern of long-range strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure on both sides, even as diplomatic tracks toward a ceasefire remain stalled. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian refineries throughout 2026 as part of a campaign to choke off fuel supplies feeding Moscow's war effort, a strategy that has periodically triggered domestic fuel shortages inside Russia. Russia, in turn, has intensified strikes on Ukrainian heating and power infrastructure ahead of the winter months.

Neither side has signaled any pullback. Kyiv is expected to continue targeting refineries and logistics networks it says sustain Russia's military supply chains, while Russian officials have vowed to keep hitting what they call legitimate military and energy targets — leaving both countries' civilians exposed as the war grinds toward its fourth winter.