Ukraine struck a key oil refinery in Moscow early Thursday morning for the second time this week, Russian officials said, as Kyiv increasingly targets Russian energy infrastructure in long-range attacks.
Several drones hit the Moscow Oil Refinery in the southeastern district of Kapotnya, said Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the Russian capital city, on Telegram, according to Reuters. More than four dozen drones heading toward Moscow were downed, he said.
“Air defense forces continue to repel a massive attack,” he added.
Video geolocated by CNN showed the moment of an explosion at the refinery. In the video, thick black smoke can be seen billowing from a section of the facility before a large explosion rocks another part of complex, blowing the roof of a large fuel tank container into the air.
An apartment building in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, was also hit by a drone, according to Russian state media TASS, citing Moscow regional Gov. Andrey Vorobyov.
The strike damaged the building and some balconies, but there were no casualties, he said. Drone debris also fell in several other locations outside the capital, damaging a fitness center, an industrial facility, a shopping center (where a fire began), and a private home, he said.
Further south in Russia’s Rostov region, a separate drone attack on Thursday killed one civilian and injured two others, as well as damaging a locomotive and causing fires at two commercial facilities, said regional governor Yury Slyusar, according to TASS.
Thursday’s Moscow strike comes after a drone strike “damaged a facility on the grounds” of the same refinery on Tuesday, Sobyanin said at the time.
After Tuesday’s strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s military had used long-range weapons to hit facilities “500 kilometers away,” framing Kyiv’s intensified attacks deep into Russian territory as a key strategy in forcing Moscow to end its war.
Ukraine has launched extensive drone attacks against Russian refineries and military facilities in recent months, with targets including naval facilities, oil depots and terminals. Some attacks took place in the Leningrad region, where St. Petersburg recently hosted a global economic forum often dubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s version of Davos.
Russia’s state budget relies on oil earnings for at least one-third of its revenue, according to analysts . Since the Ukraine war began, the pool of buyers for Russian oil has shrunk, thanks to stricter sanctions from the European Union and Washington – though the Iran war proved to be a windfall , with Moscow benefiting from surging global fuel prices and eased sanctions.
Still, Ukraine’s nearly-daily attacks on oil infrastructure have taken a toll. Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, faced oil shortages and gasoline rationing earlier this month after Ukrainian attacks constricted road supplies across the region, Reuters reported.
Thursday’s attack also comes as the world leaders gather at the G7 summit in France, where Zelensky spoke to Trump on Tuesday. After his first batch of meetings, Zelensky said “everyone” had agreed to help Ukraine secure more air defense capabilities – and that Trump had received his suggestions positively.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump encouraged Russia to agree to a deal that would end the war, now in its fifth year. “Russia’s lost tremendous amounts of people, and so had Ukraine,” he said.
And in his closing remarks at the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump and other leaders present have recognized that Russia is not seeking peace, describing a “deep change in approach” from the US regarding the war.
