Russian refineries raise crude processing 25 percent after three-day Ukrainian strike pause

Russian refineries raised crude processing by 25 percent in the second half of October compared with the beginning of the month, according to industry data, as Ukrainian drone strikes on the country's fuel infrastructure fell silent for the first time since March.

The strikes had been coming weekly since mid-March and had bitten hard enough to force Moscow to ban exports of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel and to begin importing oil products by sea. Ukrainian media confirmed the pause after a closed-door briefing, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces used the window to hit data centers and ballistic missile stockpiles instead. The last refinery attacks, at Ryazan and Surgut, came in mid-October; nothing has landed since October 16.

The timing follows a known calendar. President Trump proclaimed an energy ceasefire on October 11 and ordered the Treasury to suspend US sanctions on Russian diesel until April 2027 — the license that lets a 40,000-tonne Russian diesel tanker sail for New York for the first time since 2023. Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has confirmed the broader arrangement Washington announced around Oleshky. But the refinery data show what the pause costs Ukraine: the same facilities that were rationing Russian fuel pumps weeks ago are now running at higher throughput than before the autumn offensive began. Damage of this kind only compounds while strikes continue; three idle days let repairs catch up.

The Financial Times adds a longer horizon to the deal track: during the Ukraine peace talks, Washington discussed reviving a joint venture between American and Russian oil majors off Sakhalin after the war, and bringing US companies into a plan to resume sales of Russian oil to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline.

The sanctions were lifted, the strikes stopped, and Russian refining output is recovering. The pause costs Ukraine nothing Washington has to pay for.