{"id":876015,"date":"2026-06-18T14:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/876015\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:17:14","slug":"ukraine-hits-moscow-oil-refinery-in-major-drone-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/876015\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine hits Moscow oil refinery in major drone attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukraine struck a major Moscow oil refinery Thursday for a second time in a week, sending huge plumes of black smoke over the capital and disrupting hundreds of flights at its airports in one of its biggest drone attacks since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a> over four years ago, officials said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil facilities<\/a>, aiming to cut Moscow\u2019s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion. Some areas have reported fuel shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The attack by dozens of drones came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held \u201can important coordination call\u201d with the presidents of the United States and France and had won key pledges of further support<\/a> from this week\u2019s G7 summit. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too,\u201d Zelenskyy said, adding that the attack was part of Kyiv\u2019s effort to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. \u201cIt is time to end the aggression, time to end this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy was expected to hold talks in Brussels later Thursday with NATO and European Union leaders, including about the possibility of a continental system to defend against ballistic missiles. Russia has relentlessly struck Ukraine<\/a> with those types of missiles, which air defenses struggle to counter.<\/p>\n

The Moscow attack was the latest embarrassment for Putin, after a Ukrainian drone attack on his hometown of St. Petersburg<\/a> earlier this month as he welcomed foreign VIPs to his showcase economic forum in the city.<\/p>\n

Fires rage at Moscow refinery<\/p>\n

Thick, black smoke and occasional flames spewed from the Moscow Oil Refinery amid its red-and-white smokestacks on the southeastern edge of the city, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Kremlin. Sooty, black rain fell on cars, according to local video.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is \u2018What is going on?\u2019\u201d Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X. \u201cI can answer. Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people. Now that you know what\u2019s going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The refinery is one of Russia\u2019s biggest, according to its official website, and produces more than a third of the Moscow region\u2019s fuel. It was last attacked by Ukrainian drones on Tuesday, catching fire, but officials said the blaze was swiftly put out.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s fire at the refinery was \u201clargely contained,\u201d Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, adding that remaining hotspots were being extinguished.<\/p>\n

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As Ukraine pressed its strikes on Russia\u2019s energy infrastructure, fuel supplies appeared to be under strain. Gas station chains in multiple regions have introduced restrictions on what drivers could buy. Russian independent news outlet Agentstvo reported that one in every four gas stations in the country has introduced some kind of restrictions.<\/p>\n

Authorities in the capital said in a statement hours after the attack that \u201csupplies of oil products to Moscow and the work of all gas stations in the city continue as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack also temporarily halted flights from four Moscow airports, transport and aviation authorities said. The Russian business daily Kommersant counted more than 500 delayed or canceled flights at the airports, based on their online flight information.<\/p>\n

In the greater Moscow region, a drone hit a residential building in the town of Zhukovsky, according to Gov. Andrei Vorobyov. Buildings elsewhere were damaged by drone debris, injuring 17 people, including two children, he added.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian drone attack embarrasses Putin again<\/p>\n

The Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defenses overnight shot down 555 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions, with almost 200 intercepted as they were approaching Moscow. That was roughly double the number of drones that Russia launched at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.<\/p>\n

Putin on Thursday was in Kazan, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations<\/a> as Russia seeks to bolster business and other ties with the nations of the regional bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Putin does not want to end this war and wants to continue it, we will not sit quietly \u2014 we will respond,\u201d Zelenskyy said in a voice message to a group chat with journalists. The Ukrainian president has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Putin has refused, and U.S.-led peace efforts have petered out.<\/p>\n

Ukraine disrupts Russian supply lines with drones <\/p>\n

As well as pledges of more diplomatic and military help at the G7 summit, Ukraine recently has gained momentum on the battlefield against Russia\u2019s bigger army thanks to its high-tech drones, Western officials and analysts say.<\/p>\n

Longer-range drone strikes are choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine, in addition to disrupting Russian oil production.<\/p>\n

Macron said the G7 summit was \u201cvery important for Ukraine\u201d because its supporters \u2014 crucially including the United States \u2014 vowed to help it, although the French president provided no details. The U.S. under Trump has cut back assistance to Ukraine, leaving the Europeans as the biggest suppliers of military and financial aid. Trump and Zelenskyy have had an at times strained relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is with us on Ukraine, that is very important,\u201d Macron told reporters as he and Trump left the Palace of Versailles near Paris.<\/p>\n

In other developments Thursday, Russia struck the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine with two powerful glide bombs that killed a 64-year-old man who was fishing in a river, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional military administration.<\/p>\n

Another Russian strike on the central city of Dnipro killed one man and wounded nine other people, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine struck a major Moscow oil refinery Thursday for a second time in a week, sending huge plumes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":876016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[356033,3881,64,69,56270,2568,57,51,3464,8132,13342,24531,50,80,3658,3657,32548,52,273,3660,274,3656,96,107],"class_list":["post-876015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-andrei-vorobyov","tag-ap-top-news","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","tag-g7-summit","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-international-agreements","tag-military-and-defense","tag-military-technology","tag-moscow","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-sergei-sobyanin","tag-top-stories","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116771543187280549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}