Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow

Original article by Peter Beaumont in Pavlohrad, Warren Murray and Pjotr Sauer

Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow in Kyiv’s biggest air raid on the city in two years, setting a major ⁠oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport. The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskky, described the attack as a response to Russia’s striking of a historic Kyiv monastery complex earlier this week

The scale of the long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotno area, caught most Muscovites by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media.

The Russian media outlet RIA Novosti said the attack on energy facilities in Moscow was the biggest in two years. Footage posted online showed three plumes of smoke rising from the Kapotno refinery. The strike was the second in two days on the facility, in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then called “a just response to Russian strikes”.

The refinery, one of Moscow’s most important energy facilities, supplies up to 40% of the capital’s petrol and about 50% of its diesel fuel.

Russia said its ⁠air defence systems ​had intercepted and ⁠destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones over ⁠multiple ​regions ‌overnight. The number actually shot down could not be independently confirmed.

President Vladimir Putin is in Kazan, 700km (430 miles) east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as Russia seeks to bolster business and other ties.

Kyiv was this week hit by a major strike of ballistic missiles and drones, in a marked escalation of the air war between Moscow and Kyiv. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had warned of impending “systemic strikes” on Ukraine.

Five people were killed in Kyiv, and the Dormition Cathedral in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Unesco world heritage site and one of Ukraine’s most significant religious and cultural sites, was badly damaged on Monday.

Footage of the Ukrainian weapons used in the latest Moscow strikes appeared to show the use of Ukrainian Bars hybrid drone-cruise missiles, first used last year. They had been believed to have a range of 600-800km, designed for precision targeting, but their use against Moscow would suggest a longer range.

Ukraine is rapidly catching up with Russia in its ability to mass-produce long-range strike weapons. Kyiv has stepped up its drone strikes on Russia in recent months, hitting oil refineries that fund Moscow’s war chest, as diplomatic talks on ending the conflict remain stalled.

Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, said: “Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” adding that a shopping centre was also damaged. He claimed ‌about 180 drones heading for the capital had ‌been downed.

Sobyanin said emergency crews were working at the site and also reported “damage” to Sadovod shopping centre in the south-eastern part of the city. At least seven drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city.

Footage online appeared to show a Russian MANPADS operator attempting to shoot down a Ukrainian strike drone, moments before it struck the Moscow oil refinery.

Traffic was halted ​on Moscow’s ring road near ⁠the refinery, the broadcaster RIA ​cited ‌the ​interior ministry ​as saying, while air traffic was disrupted at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky airports. Footage on social media appeared to show a strike on a high-rise building in Zhukovsky district. Sheremetyevo, Moscow’s busiest airport, suspended flights and evacuated people. Some had sought shelter in the parking area, the airport said.

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, the regional governor said.

An earlier strike on Tuesday was understood to have already halted operations at the Kapotno refinery, adding to widespread damage to Russian energy facilities and extending a ​fuel crisis deeper into the country.

Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer and ‌a major oil and fuel exporter, is to import fuel by sea this month as it seeks to manage a shortage after extensive Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries.

Russian hardliners called for Moscow to retaliate, with some urging the Kremlin to consider using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

“What else has to happen before we start fighting for real?” wrote the ultraconservative billionaire Konstantin Malofeev on Telegram. “Why aren’t we using the nuclear weapons that our ancestors created and stockpiled through the efforts of the entire country precisely for moments like this?”

Andrey Gurulyov, a retired lieutenant general and state duma deputy, called for Russia to “strike the enemy mercilessly” in response to the attack. “We need to strengthen our air defence system, but most importantly, we need to hit the enemy,” he told RTVI news outlet. “Hit the enemy mercilessly, without overthinking it.”

The attack by Ukraine came hours after Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with the US president, Donald Trump, and French president, Emmanuel Macron, that may “bring about significant change”.

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday his country had won key pledges of further support from world leaders attending the G7 summit in France. “These last few days were very important for Ukraine because it is the reunification of the G7 around Ukraine,″ Macron told reporters as he and Trump left the Palace of Versailles near Paris.

Kyiv came under air attack this week as Russia unleashed ballistic missiles on the Ukrainian capital, city officials said, with residents urged to take shelter. Authorities in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person had been killed in a drone attack. Airstrike alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory.

One person was killed in the Ukrainian ​city of Enerhodar, where most of ‌the staff of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia ​nuclear power plant live, said the Russia-installed mayor, Maksim ​Pukhov. In Russia’s Belgorod border region, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed one man in his car.

On Wednesday, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking a bus carrying Belarusian children, an accusation Kyiv said was false. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and caused a fire at two commercial facilities, officials said. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.

Reuters and AP contributed to this report