Moscow oil refinery on fire after ‘large-scale’ Ukrainian drone strike

Ukrainian drones hit Moscow’s ⁠oil refinery for the second time ⁠this week, sending out flames and plumes ⁠of smoke over the south-eastern district of Kapotnya on Thursday morning.

“Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” said Sergei Sobyanin, the city’s mayor, adding that a shopping centre was also damaged. He claimed ‌about 180 drones heading for the capital had ‌been downed.

Traffic was halted ​on Moscow’s ring road near ⁠the refinery, broadcaster RIA ​cited ‌the ​interior ministry ​as saying.

The first strike, on Tuesday, was already understood to have halted operations at the refinery, adding to widespread damage to Russian energy facilities and extending a ​fuel crisis deeper into the country. Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer and ‌a major oil and fuel exporter, is set ‌to import fuel by sea this month as it seeks to manage a gasoline shortage after extensive Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries.

In the surrounding ‌Moscow region, a high-rise residential building, an industrial facility and a number of private houses were also damaged in the drone attack, the regional governor said. The Sheremetyevo airport, Moscow’s busiest, suspended flights and evacuated people, some seeking shelter in the parking area, the airport said.

Russia said its ⁠air defence systems ​had intercepted and ⁠destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones over ⁠multiple ​regions ‌overnight. The number actually shot down could not be independently confirmed.

Kyiv came under the second air attack this week as Russia unleashed ballistic missiles on the Ukrainian capital, city officials said, with residents urged to take shelter.

Authorities in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person was killed in a drone attack. Airstrike alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory.

One person was killed in the Ukrainian ​city of Enerhodar, where most of ‌the staff of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia ​nuclear power plant live, said the Russia-installed mayor, Maksim ​Pukhov. In Russia’s Belgorod border region, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed one man in his car.

On Wednesday, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking a bus carrying Belarusian children, an accusation Kyiv said was false. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and caused a fire at two commercial facilities, officials said. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.

With Reuters