Ukrainian drone strike damages Moscow oil refinery as regional officials report two dead

Drone strike hits Kapotnya oil refinery

Ukrainian drones struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in the capital city's Kapotnya district on Sunday morning, damaging an infrastructure facility inside the industrial perimeter. The refinery sits 15 kilometres from the Kremlin and produces up to 40% of the gasoline consumed in the Moscow metropolitan area, while also supplying diesel and fuel to the Russian armed forces. Video recordings and photographs circulating online showed open flames and dense columns of black smoke rising above the site. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported via the Max messaging app that emergency rescue services secured the perimeter and that no casualties occurred at the plant itself. The facility was previously hit during an earlier drone strike in late August.

An attack of enemy drones on Moscow is underway. A facility on the premises of the Moscow oil refinery was damaged, but no casualties were reported.

Fatalities and interceptions across Moscow region

Outside the city centre, Moscow Oblast Governor Andrey Vorobyov reported that at least two people were killed and six others sustained injuries during what he described as a massive nighttime drone assault. The falling debris and direct impacts ignited fires across several residential houses and a local storage warehouse. Vorobyov stated that Russian air defense units destroyed 249 drones over Moscow Oblast during the night. In the capital, Sobyanin announced on Sunday morning that air defenses had downed 152 drones heading toward Moscow, later adding that forces repelled a subsequent group of 35 incoming drones.

The Sunday morning strikes followed a broad aerial barrage across western Russia the day before. On Saturday evening, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that air defense units intercepted and destroyed 288 Ukrainian drones between 08:00 and 20:00 Moscow time. The ministry listed interceptions over Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryol, Tula, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and Vladimir oblasts, as well as Moscow Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, occupied Crimea, and over the Black Sea.

Energy campaign and unfinalized pause

The operation in Kapotnya fits into a broader Ukrainian campaign targeting Russian refining capacity that has continued for over a year. The recurring strikes have caused domestic fuel delivery shortfalls in several Russian regions, prompting the Russian government to impose export restrictions on motor fuels to stabilize internal supply. The latest wave arrived days after US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes against energy facilities. Despite that announcement, no binding or formal agreement was ever finalized between the two countries.

Trump had argued that global diesel price increases were caused primarily by the war between Russia and Ukraine rather than conflicts involving Iran, publicly calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to avoid striking Russian oil facilities.

Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop hitting Russian installations and diesel supplies. Let him look for targets, but not those, because he is causing fuel shortages this way.