Thick black smoke hung over Moscow on Thursday after Ukrainian drones hit the Moscow Oil Refinery for the second time in a week. Russian state media showed huge fires at the plant, which sits only around 9 miles from the Kremlin.
Russian officials said flights from four Moscow airports were temporarily halted. The refinery is one of Russia’s biggest and, according to its own website, supplies more than a third of the fuel market in the capital region. Drones had set it on fire once before, on June 16, but officials said that blaze was quickly put out.
Damage across the region
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 555 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions, with almost 200 stopped as they approached the capital. Ukraine’s air force said that was roughly double the number of drones Russia launched at Ukraine over the same night.
Gov. Andrei Vorobyov of the Moscow region said a drone struck a residential building in the town of Zhukovsky, which was being evacuated. Elsewhere, falling debris hit private houses, a car, a fitness center, an unspecified industrial facility and a large mall, where the roof caught fire. One woman was injured, Vorobyov said.
Zelenskyy: “Moscow will burn”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strikes as retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. “We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” he said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group. “But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”
He added that he wanted ordinary Russians to see who was responsible. “The main thing is that the people of Russia begin to feel that it is one man, Putin, who is waging this war, while ordinary people pay the price for everything,” he said.
On social media he called the strike “a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities, and another important result of our warriors’ work against facilities that sustain Russia’s war machine.” He also said: “It is time the war ended, and Russia must take the necessary steps in diplomacy.”
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha addressed Muscovites directly on X. “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.”
Timing around the G7
The attack came hours after Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, one that may “bring about significant change.” He said leaders at the G7 summit in France, the U.S. among them, had given Ukraine key pledges of further support.
Macron called the summit “very important for Ukraine,” though he gave no details. “America is with us on Ukraine, that is very important,” he told reporters as he and Trump left the Palace of Versailles near Paris. The U.S. under Trump has cut back assistance to Ukraine, which leaves European countries as the biggest suppliers of military and financial aid. Trump and Zelenskyy have at times had a strained relationship.
Vladimir Putin was in Kazan, some 430 miles east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Earlier this month a Ukrainian drone attack on his hometown of St. Petersburg coincided with a showcase economic forum there, attended by foreign VIP visitors.
Western officials and analysts say longer-range drone strikes are doing more than cutting Russian oil production. They are also choking supply lines in occupied parts of Ukraine, and they give Ukraine a high-tech counter to Russia’s bigger army.
