Ukraine launches largest drone attack on Moscow since war began
Moscow oil refinery hit again as nearly 1,000 drones target Russia
Escalation follows Russian strikes and renewed Western support for Ukraine
Ukraine carried out its largest drone offensive on Moscow since Russia's full-scale invasion began more than four years ago, disrupting flights at the capital's airports and striking the Moscow Oil Refinery for the second time in a week, Russian officials confirmed on Thursday.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down at least 194 drones bound for the capital overnight, a figure far higher than during previous waves of attacks, which had typically numbered in the double digits. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces intercepted nearly 1,000 drones in total across a broad swath of the country, including over the Sea of Azov, with around 200 intercepted as they approached Moscow itself. At least 17 people were injured.
Footage geolocated by CNN showed a ground-launched projectile being fired at drones approaching the refinery, located roughly 15 kilometres from the Kremlin in the Kapotnya district, with a large explosion blowing the roof off a fuel storage tank. The facility, one of Russia's largest refineries and responsible for more than a third of the capital region's fuel supply, had also been struck and damaged on Tuesday.
Flights at all major Moscow airports were temporarily suspended. In the wider Moscow region, a drone struck a residential building in Zhukovsky, prompting an evacuation, while debris hit private houses, a car, a fitness centre and a shopping mall whose roof caught fire, according to regional governor Andrei Vorobyov. One woman was injured.
‘Moscow Will Burn’
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attacks as a justified response to a Russian strike that damaged a UNESCO-listed monastery complex in Kyiv earlier this week. "We don't want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it," Zelenskiy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group, CBS reported. "But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn," the reported quoted him.
Russia retaliated with seven missiles and 239 drones overnight, according to Ukraine's air force, striking a private home, energy infrastructure, a hangar and oil facilities across the Kyiv and Poltava regions.
The strikes came hours after Zelenskyy held what he described as an important coordination call with US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, and after securing fresh pledges of diplomatic and military support from world leaders at the G7 summit in France.
