Ukrainian strikes reported on refinery in Novokuibyshevsk, near Samara

Ukrainian forces were reported to be attacking the Russian city of Samara, according to the Israeli news outlet News.co.il, which posted on its Telegram feed that the strikes were under way and shared further footage it said showed the attack in progress. The outlet did not identify the targets or describe the weapons involved.

Several hours later, N12, the news arm of one of Israel's main commercial television channels, gave a more specific account. Its correspondent Asaf Rosenzweig wrote that Russian reports described multiple Ukrainian strikes on the oil refinery in Novokuibyshevsk, a city close to Samara. Neither outlet reported casualties or the extent of any damage.

What the two outlets said

The first item from News.co.il was brief and framed as a report circulating at the time, stating that Ukrainians were attacking Samara at that moment. A second post a few minutes afterwards described additional video documentation of the same attack. Neither post named a source for the footage or said where in the city it was filmed.

The N12 update narrows the location. Rather than the city of Samara itself, it places the strikes at a refinery in Novokuibyshevsk, which it describes as near Samara. It attributes this to reporting inside Russia rather than to its own confirmation. The two accounts are not necessarily in conflict: the early posts may have referred to the wider Samara area, but the material does not say so, and readers should note that the earlier items name the city while the later one names a refinery in a neighbouring town.

Where Samara and Novokuibyshevsk are

Samara is a large city in Russia, well inside the country and far from the front lines in Ukraine. Novokuibyshevsk is a smaller industrial city in the same area and, according to the N12 report, is home to an oil refinery. An attack reaching this region would mean Ukrainian weapons travelling a long distance over Russian territory.

Why refineries matter in this war

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian energy facilities, including oil refineries, depots and related infrastructure, often with long-range drones. Kyiv has presented such facilities as part of the economic base that sustains Russia's war effort, while Moscow describes the attacks as strikes on civilian infrastructure. Reports of an attack on a refinery fit that broader pattern, though the reports here do not say what kind of weapon was used.

Why Israeli outlets are covering it

Israeli news channels on Telegram, such as those run by News.co.il and N12, publish rapid updates on international events alongside domestic news, often relaying reports, videos and claims as they surface. These posts are typically short and provisional, and they are frequently updated as more information emerges. That is the nature of the material behind this article: early, fast-moving reports rather than confirmed official accounts.

What the reports do not say

The material leaves several basic questions unanswered. None of the reports cites a statement from the Ukrainian military or government claiming the attack, and none cites an official Russian statement from the Defence Ministry or regional authorities. N12 refers only to reports in Russia without naming who issued them.

• The weapons used, whether drones, missiles or something else, are not identified.
• There is no information on casualties, injuries or evacuations.
• The reports do not describe the damage to the Novokuibyshevsk refinery, or whether it caught fire or halted operations.
• It is not stated whether anything in Samara itself, beyond the refinery near it, was hit.
• The origin and authenticity of the footage shared by News.co.il are not established in the posts.

Until official statements or fuller reporting emerge, the account rests on these early Telegram updates and the unnamed Russian reports that N12 relayed.