Ukraine has launched its largest drone attack on Moscow in two years, setting fire to an oil refinery and forcing the city’s airport to suspend flights for a time.
According to The Independent, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that Russian air defences shot down at least 194 drones heading for the city overnight into Thursday, June 18.
It was part of a major, long-range attack across parts of the country, with air defences intercepting 555 drones from Ukraine overall, according to the Russian ministry of defence.
Sobyanin said, “Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery]. At least seven of Ukraine’s drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack was in response to repeated aerial assaults on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces and that if “Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”
The president said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group, “We don't want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it. But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn."
Zelenskyy also called on Europe and the US to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions on its defence and energy sectors.
The attack was apparently intended to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in Moscow’s southeastern district of Kapotnya, which had been damaged in another strike on Tuesday.
Footage posted online showed several plumes of smoke billowing from the refinery complex and flames spreading.
The oil facility supplies up to 40 per cent of Moscow’s fuel market and around 70 per cent of gasoline consumed in Moscow and the surrounding region.
