Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Moscow on Thursday, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week in what Kyiv cast as a response to an attack that damaged a nearly 1,000-year-old monastery in the city.
“We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group. “But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”
Russia, for its part, fired missiles into Kyiv, also for the second time this week, following the attack that damaged the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery and drew international condemnation. Russia denied striking it.
In Moscow, Reuters saw flames and plumes of smoke over the densely populated southeastern district of Kapotnya where the refinery supplying the capital is located.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that several drones managed to reach the refinery, adding that a shopping centre also suffered minor damage.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
Russia’s defence ministry said 555 drones were shot down across the country. Sobyanin said 180 were shot down around Moscow alone. State news agency TASS said the attack on Moscow was one of the biggest this year.
Zelenskiy confirmed the attack on the refinery. Ukraine‘s military said that Ukrainian forces also hit an oil depot in Russia’s southern Rostov region and another two bridges as Kyiv intensifies its campaign to hamper Russia’s logistics.
More than four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has increasingly been targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure with long-range drone strikes, while Russia has continued firing missiles at Ukrainian cities.
After years when Russian forces made slow but relentless gains on the battlefield, Kyiv says its improving drone capabilities are shifting the war’s momentum in its favour, providing new impetus for Moscow to agree a peace deal.
Zelenskiy has launched a diplomatic push to increase pressure on Russia to negotiate an end to the war.
“One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is ‘What is going on?’ I can answer. Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people. Now that you know what’s going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X.
Source: Reuters
