Ukraine hits Moscow refinery in major drone attack on Russian capital
AI Analysis
Ukraine conducted a major drone attack targeting oil refineries and infrastructure in Moscow and surrounding regions, causing significant disruption including airport closures and fuel supply concerns. Russia claims to have intercepted a large number of drones, but damage occurred. This attack represents an escalation in Ukraine's strategy of targeting Russian energy infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- Ukraine successfully targeted a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week, disrupting operations and potentially causing fuel shortages.
- Russia claims to have intercepted 555 drones nationwide, with 180 near Moscow, indicating a high volume of attack.
- Ukraine is expanding its drone strikes to include oil depots and bridges in Southern Russia, aiming to disrupt logistics.
- The attacks are impacting Russian domestic capabilities, forcing potential fuel imports despite being a major oil producer.
- The attacks are occurring alongside continued Russian missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, escalating the conflict.
Why It Matters
Ukraine’s demonstrated ability to strike deep within Russia, particularly at critical energy infrastructure, signals a shift in the conflict’s dynamics and challenges Russia’s air defense capabilities. These attacks aim to degrade Russia’s war-sustaining economy and potentially force concessions at the negotiating table. The increased reliance on drones highlights the growing importance of counter-UAS technologies and asymmetric warfare.
Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Moscow on Thursday, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week in what Kyiv cast as a response to an attack that damaged a nearly 1,000-year-old monastery in the city.
“We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group. “But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”
Russia, for its part, fired missiles into Kyiv, also for the second time this week, following the attack that damaged the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery and drew international condemnation. Russia denied striking it.
In Moscow, Reuters saw flames and plumes of smoke over the densely populated southeastern district of Kapotnya, where the refinery supplying the capital is located.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that several drones managed to reach the refinery, adding that a shopping centre also suffered minor damage.
Russia’s defense ministry said 555 drones were shot down across the country. Sobyanin said 180 were shot down around Moscow alone. State news agency TASS said the attack on Moscow was one of the biggest this year.
Zelenskyy confirmed the attack on the refinery. Ukraine’s military said that Ukrainian forces also hit an oil depot in Russia’s southern Rostov region and another two bridges as Kyiv intensifies its campaign to hamper Russia’s logistics.
More than four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has increasingly been targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure with long-range drone strikes, while Russia has continued firing missiles at Ukrainian cities.
After years when Russian forces made slow but relentless gains on the battlefield, Kyiv says its improving drone capabilities are shifting the war’s momentum in its favor, providing new impetus for Moscow to agree a peace deal.
Zelenskyy has launched a diplomatic push to increase pressure on Russia to negotiate an end to the war.
“One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is ‘What is going on?’ I can answer. Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people. Now that you know what’s going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X.
Moscow, which says Ukraine is losing, has demanded Kyiv cede its territory before it will discuss peace.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that Ukraine’s latest attacks on Russia are pushing back the prospect of any direct contacts between President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy, the Interfax news agency reported.
Zelenskyy called the attacks on Russia a “totally fair response to Russian strikes on our cities and communities and another important result of the work of our soldiers on facilities that provide support for the Russian war machine.”
A drone strike on Tuesday on Moscow’s refinery had already halted operations there, sources said, adding to widespread damage to Russian energy facilities.
Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer and a major oil and fuel exporter, is set to import fuel by sea this month as it seeks to manage a gasoline shortage following Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries, according to industry sources.
In the surrounding Moscow region, a high-rise residential building, an industrial facility and a number of private houses were damaged in the drone attack, which also injured 16 people, the regional governor said.
Flights were suspended at all Moscow airports and traffic shut on the highway around the capital near the refinery. Sheremetyevo airport, Moscow’s busiest, said it had been evacuated.
Elsewhere in Russia, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in his car in the Belgorod border region, and a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and caused a fire at two commercial facilities in the Rostov region.
Meanwhile explosions rang out in Kyiv and airstrike alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory.