Published on 6/16/2026
Russian authorities announced that a Ukrainian drone targeted a major oil refinery in the vicinity of the capital, Moscow, on Tuesday, causing a fire and causing damage to the facility, while Kiev intensified its air attacks on targets inside the Russian interior.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed via Telegram that air defenses shot down about 60 drones targeting the capital, in an attack described as among the largest this year.
Sobyanin explained that the debris of one of the drones hit a site inside the refinery belonging to the “Gazprom Neft” company, confirming that there were no casualties, while emergency teams were working to deal with the effects of the attack.
Zelensky: “Fair response”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country was behind the strike, and wrote on social media, “This time, the Moscow region sensed Ukraine’s long-range capabilities. An oil refinery was targeted at a distance of 500 kilometers.”
Zelensky added, “This is a fair response to the Russian strikes, and to the prolongation of the war that must end.”
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Anti-Disinformation Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, stated that the attack damaged the primary processing unit at the refinery, which is about 25 kilometers from the Kremlin.
These attacks led to disruptions in air traffic, as operations were temporarily suspended at the capital’s four airports (Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo).
In a related context, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it shot down 172 Ukrainian drones last night over various Russian regions.
In the Krasnodar region in the south of the country, the authorities reported that the wreckage of a drone caused a fire in an oil warehouse in the Poltavskaya region, without any casualties being reported. The authorities also closed a local road linking the affected area to the bridge leading to the Crimean Peninsula.
These developments come at a time when Kiev continues to target Russian energy facilities and export centers in an attempt to reduce fossil fuel revenues that it says finance Moscow’s war effort, and Russia continues to launch almost daily air strikes using drones and missiles on Ukrainian territory.
