Ukraine launches drone strike on Moscow's largest oil refinery
Ukrainian drones hit the Moscow Oil Refinery, causing a fire and prompting Russian air defenses to intercept dozens of aircraft, amid ongoing attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian forces carried out a drone attack on the Moscow Oil Refinery, the largest fuel-processing plant serving the capital region, overnight into Tuesday. The strike ignited a fire and produced a plume of smoke that was visible over Moscow. Russian air defenses intercepted about 60 drones, according to Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who said one of the unmanned aircraft damaged an unspecified part of the refinery but caused no injuries.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the operation, noting that the drones travelled roughly 500 kilometres to reach the target. A Ukrainian official, Andriy Kovalenko, said a processing unit at the refinery was set alight and raised the possibility of a temporary suspension of operations.
The attack follows a large-scale Russian aerial bombardment of Kyiv that killed at least 11 people and damaged cultural sites. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Russian oil refineries, pipelines and storage facilities in an effort to disrupt revenue streams for the Russian war effort. Russia’s energy ministry earlier reported that recent Ukrainian strikes had caused temporary fuel-supply difficulties in parts of southern Russia and announced the creation of a task force to address the issue.
