Ukrainian drones hit Moscow's largest oil refinery and a southern oil depot, igniting fires and halting flights at all four capital airports
About 60 Ukrainian drones targeted the Moscow region overnight, Russian authorities said. One drone struck an oil refinery belonging to Gazprom Neft, causing a large fire, while debris from intercepted drones also fell on a residential building.
Refinery fire in Moscow
Russian air defense shot down roughly 60 Ukrainian drones over the capital region, Mayor Sergey Sobjanin reported early Monday. One drone still managed to strike a facility on the grounds of the Gazprom Neft refinery, Moscow's largest oil-processing plant. Video posted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed flames and heavy black smoke billowing from the site. No casualties were reported, and emergency crews were clearing away wreckage from downed drones.
Russia must be forced to end the war against our people.
Zelenskyy seizes the moment
Zelenskyy shared the video on social media as he prepared to attend a G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. He praised Kyiv's intelligence services for "their effective work" and noted that the refinery lies 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The strike will likely be presented to G7 leaders as fresh evidence of Ukraine's growing strike capability and its ability to disrupt the Russian economy far beyond the frontline.
Air travel paralyzed
The drone alert forced all four of Moscow's airports to suspend operations in succession. Domodedovo and Zhukovsky stopped flights first, followed later by Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. The closures, during the peak summer travel season, left passengers stranded with long queues, redirects and cancellations. Russian travelers now face near-daily disruptions from drone alarms, with frequent delays and grounded flights becoming routine.
Southern oil depot also hit
A separate Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil storage depot near the settlement of Poltavskaya in the Krasnodar region, authorities said. The depot caught fire, sending up a large smoke plume captured in unverified videos circulating online. A regional road was closed as a result. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed a total of 172 drones were shot down over multiple regions, though it gave no details of any hits or damage.
Economic fallout
The campaign against Russia's oil industry aims to strangle military logistics and choke off billions in energy-export revenues. Repeated strikes on refineries and fuel depots have already caused gasoline shortages in several regions, with particularly acute shortages reported on the occupied Crimean peninsula. According to the Interfax news agency, regional oil company Tatneft has introduced a temporary price cap for gasoline in response.
