Yandex to block access to oil refinery maps in Russia first time since drone attacks started

Russian media reported that a court in Moscow, following a lawsuit filed by prosecutors, ordered Yandex to hide access to maps and photos of a Russian refinery. According to Mediazona, this is a plant of the Ryazan Oil Refining Company, a part of Rosneft. The company was reportedly attacked by drones four times in 2024 alone.

Russian media writes that the company “operates in an uninterrupted mode, meeting the needs of the Russian army and navy” during the war against Ukraine.

The court ordered Yandex to “prevent information access to the refinery's infrastructure by removing and retouching graphic images of the company's components (workshops, compressor stations, tank sites, and other plant elements)” from its maps within a month.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian refineries have suffered dozens of drone attacks, which have resulted in a drop in fuel production in Russia by more than 10%. It also had to stop exporting gasoline.

Drone attacks have also been one of the reasons for the record-breaking increase in gasoline prices in Russia over the past 13 years.

Attacks on Russian refineries

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrainian special services have carried out dozens of operations, attacking oil refineries and oil depots in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine with drones.

For example, in late December 2024, the Ukrainian Defense Forces launched a combined strike against a large refinery near Rostov. The attack on the refinery resulted in a large-scale fire.

According to RBC-Ukraine's sources, the Security Service drones first overwhelmed the Russian air defense system that was protecting the plant and created a window of opportunity for Ukrainian missiles.