In view of depleting light oil reserves, the involvement of heavy petroleum feedstocks (bitumens, atmospheric residues, vacuum residues) in oil refining is becoming increasingly promising. The conversion of these feedstocks requires the development of new methods for destroying macromolecular components (resins, asphaltenes), which will provide an effective production of distillate fractions and a decrease in the formation of a solid product (coke). The paper describes the results of high-sulfur vacuum residue cracking at temperatures of 400-500 degrees C and varying process time; optimum cracking conditions providing an increase in the light fraction yield and a decrease in the amount of sulfur-containing components in liquid products are determined. Variations in the cracking product composition as a function of the amount of a radical-generating additive (styrene) are shown. Using a kinetic model of the cracking process, changes in the rate constants of thermal conversions of the components of Novokuibyshevsk refinery vacuum residue under various conditions have been determined.