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Ukraine hit a major Moscow oil refinery for a second time in a week, sending huge plumes of black smoke over the capital and and disrupting hundreds of flights at its airports in one of its biggest drone attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion over four years ago, officials said.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russia’s oil facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion.
The attack by dozens of drones came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with the presidents of the United States and France and had won key pledges of further support from this week’s G7 summit.
“If Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the attack was part of Kyiv’s effort to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. “It is time to end the aggression, time to end this war.”
The Moscow attack was the latest embarrassment for Putin. Ukrainian drones attacked his hometown of St. Petersburg earlier this month as he welcomed foreign VIPs to his showcase economic forum in the city.
Putin on Thursday was in Kazan, some 700 kilometres east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as Russia seeks to bolster business and other ties with the regional bloc.
Russia’s state-controlled TV channels only briefly mentioned the attack on Moscow. Pro-Kremlin newspapers reported it, with some praising the performance of air defences while noting that the strike highlighted the need to further strengthen the defensive shield around the capital.
A social media video, which Reuters verified by matching visuals to satellite imagery, shows a roof flying off what appears to be a fuel tank at a Moscow oil refinery. The video appears to have first been posted on June 18, the same day Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the area had been targeted with a series of drone attacks.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, warned that Moscow would respond by ramping up its strikes.
“Their action will lead to our counteraction and launching harsher blows, with more powerful weapons,” Volodin said in televised remarks.
Some Russian hawks urged the Kremlin to respond with nuclear weapons. Nationalist Konstantin Malofeyev criticized the military for “fighting at half-strength in a gentlemanlike way.”
“War means victory at any cost,” Malofeyev wrote on his Telegram channel, suggesting the use of “the nuclear weapons that our ancestors created and stockpiled while mobilizing the entire country’s strength precisely for this purpose — to win.”
Hundreds of drones fired, Russia says
Thick, black smoke and occasional flames spewed from the Moscow Oil Refinery amid its red-and-white smokestacks on the southeastern edge of the city, about 15 kilometres from the Kremlin. Sooty, black rain fell on cars, according to local video.
“One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is ‘What is going on?'” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X. “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.”
The refinery is one of Russia’s biggest, according to its official website, producing more than a third of the region’s fuel. It was last attacked by Ukrainian drones on Tuesday, catching fire, but officials said that fire was swiftly put out.
Thursday’s fire at the refinery was “largely contained,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said hours afterward, adding that remaining hotspots were being extinguished.
As Ukraine pressed its strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, fuel supplies appeared to be under strain. Gas station chains in multiple regions have introduced restrictions on what drivers could buy. Russian independent news outlet Agentstvo reported that one out of every four gas stations has introduced some kind of restrictions.
Authorities in the capital said in a statement hours after the attack that “supplies of oil products to Moscow and the work of all gas stations in the city continue as normal.”
The attack also temporarily halted flights from four Moscow airports, transport and aviation authorities said. The Russian business daily Kommersant counted more than 500 delayed or cancelled flights at the airports, based on their online flight information.
In the greater Moscow region, a drone hit a residential building in the town of Zhukovsky, and the building was being evacuated, according to Gov. Andrei Vorobyov. Buildings elsewhere were damaged by drone debris, injuring 17 people, including two children, he added.
Ukraine seeks more help from NATO, EU
“Russia is on the back foot: militarily, economically and politically,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X after meeting Thursday with Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. “Now is the time to provide Ukraine with even greater support and to exert even more pressure on Russia to end the war.”
Zelenskyy held talks Thursday in Brussels with NATO and European Union leaders, and the German and Ukrainian defence ministers signed an agreement to jointly develop an air defence system to counter ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy described it as the start of an “anti-ballistic missile coalition” and invited others to join.
Russia has relentlessly struck Ukraine with those types of missiles, which air defences struggle to counter.
Russia says it downed hundreds of drones
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its air defences overnight shot down 555 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions, with almost 200 intercepted as they were approaching the Russian capital.
For about four years the Russians were consistently capturing and destroying Ukrainian territory, but that Russian advance appears to have been halted. For The National, CBC’s Terence McKenna breaks down how drone warfare has shifted momentum on the front line.
That was roughly double the number of drones that Russia launched at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.
“If Putin does not want to end this war and wants to continue it, we will not sit quietly — we will respond,” Zelenskyy said in a voice message to a group chat with journalists.
He has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, but Putin has refused, and U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled.
Ukraine disrupts Russian supply lines
Along with pledges of more diplomatic and military help at the G7 summit, Ukraine recently has gained momentum on the battlefield against Russia’s bigger army, thanks to its high-tech drones, Western officials and analysts say. Longer-range drones are choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine, in addition to disrupting oil production.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the G7 summit was “very important for Ukraine” because its supporters — crucially including the United States — vowed to help it, although he provided no details.
The U.S. under Trump has cut back assistance to Ukraine, leaving the Europeans as the biggest suppliers of military and financial aid. Trump and Zelenskyy have had a sometimes strained relationship.
Front Burner33:08Inside Ukraine’s kill zone
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