Drone attacks from Ukraine on Thursday targeted positions across Moscow, causing a fire at an oil refinery and disrupting operations at airports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy linked the operation to recent Russian missile strikes on Kyiv that damaged a monastery complex, calling the drone deployment “a just response to Russian strikes”.
The strike targeted the energy infrastructure in the Kapotno district.
While the refinery provides 40 percent of the petrol and 50 percent of the diesel fuel used in the capital, the interior ministry confirmed that authorities halted traffic on the Moscow Ring Road near the refinery location.
Meanwhile, air traffic faced disruptions at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky airports.
Officials at Sheremetyevo suspended flights and initiated evacuations. In the wider Moscow region, the regional governor reported damage to a high-rise residential building, an industrial site and private homes.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated that air units engaged the incoming targets, noting that “several drones managed to reach the Moscow oil refinery” and that the Sadovod shopping centre sustained damage.
Sobyanin also said that forces downed approximately 180 drones tracking toward the city.
The Russian defence ministry stated that systems intercepted 555 drones across multiple regions overnight.
Analysts noted the deployment of Bars hybrid drone-cruise missiles, a weapon type first observed last year with an estimated range of 600 to 800 kilometres.
At the time of the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Kazan, located 700 kilometres east of Moscow, to meet with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Prior to the strikes, Zelenskyy held a coordination call with United States (US) President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron following the G7 summit in France.
