The AVT-3 unit processing 17,140 tonnes a day at the YANOS refinery in Yaroslavl was hit and crude processing stopped

As United24 Media reported, the unit hit in the strike of 17 September 2026 was the AVT-3 primary distillation unit, with a processing capacity of 17,140 metric tonnes a day, equivalent to about 40% of the refinery's capacity. According to the same source, the AVT-4 unit, with a capacity of 14,300 tonnes a day, had already been under repair since the strike of 28 August; in other words two of the plant's three primary distillation units are out of service at the same time. The plant processes about 15 million tonnes of crude oil a year and lies 250 kilometres north-east of Moscow.

According to the Kyiv Post, the operation was carried out jointly by the SBU, the Unmanned Systems Forces, military intelligence and foreign intelligence; the Tsentralny military airfield in Rostov-on-Don was also targeted the same night, and according to the Ukrainian side's claim 1 An-12, 2 An-26s and 3 helicopters were destroyed. These loss figures could not be independently verified. The Russian side reported something different: the governor of Rostov said there were no dead or injured, while the governor of Yaroslavl, Mikhail Yevrayev, said the fire at the refinery had been completely extinguished by Thursday morning.

Sources also conflict on the number of drones shot down. The Kyiv Post reported Russian officials claiming that 65 drones had been shot down during the attack, while The Moscow Times wrote that the Russian Defence Ministry had announced intercepting 641 drones across Russia and Crimea between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Power was cut in four districts of Rostov-on-Don; the Moscow Times reported that this affected about two-fifths of the city's population. The M-8 highway linking Yaroslavl to Moscow was temporarily closed.