Ukrainian drones strike Moscow refinery, halt airport operations
A wave of Ukrainian drones hit a Moscow refinery and other sites, prompting the shutdown of the city’s airports and injuring at least 16 people.
Ukrainian drones targeted a refinery that supplies roughly 40 percent of Moscow’s gasoline, causing fires and thick smoke, and forced the closure of all four Moscow airports for most of Thursday morning. The attacks were part of a broader drone campaign across Russia, with the defence ministry reporting more than 550 drones intercepted nationwide and city officials confirming that at least 194 drones were shot down over Moscow.
The strikes injured a minimum of 16 people in the Moscow region, according to regional governor Andrei Y. Vorobyev. Additional damage was reported at the capital’s largest open-air market and a major shopping mall, while a drone also hit a high-rise residential building in the suburb of Zhukovsky.
"The drone strikes were a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Russian officials said the attacks demonstrate Ukraine’s expanding ability to breach Russian air defences, a capability that has grown as Ukraine increases drone production and employs longer-range models to reach targets hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.
