Ukraine sets Moscow’s refinery ablaze in biggest attack in years

MOSCOW: Ukraine on Thursday launched its largest drone attack on Moscow in years, sparking fires, hitting a major oil refinery and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport.

Russia vowed to retaliate for the attack as AFP reporters saw dramatic scenes of black smoke billowing over the capital’s southern skyline and drops of black rain mixed with soot falling from the sky.

“At least 17 people were wounded in the strikes, which also set a shopping centre and apartment building ablaze,” authorities said.

The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in the central city of Kazan, about 700km east of Moscow.

The Russian leader was yet to comment on the strikes, despite issuing delivering press statements through the day, though his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov vowed Moscow would retaliate with its own “massive” strikes on Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was an “absolutely justified response” to deadly strikes on Kyiv – including one earlier this week on a landmark cathedral and a Unesco-protected 11th-century monastery.

He said he wanted Russians to put pressure on Putin for the consequences of Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

“The main thing is that the people of Russia begin to feel that it is one man, Putin, who is waging this war, while ordinary people pay the price for everything,” Zelensky told reporters, including AFP.

“If Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too,” he added.

Moscow has hit Ukraine with daily barrages of missiles and drones.

Airport closures

It was the second time this month that Kyiv launched a major attack during an international summit, after striking Saint Petersburg at the start of a landmark economic forum near the city.

Moscow’s airports were shut for hours, leading to hundreds of flight delays.

The country’s busiest – Sheremetyevo – announced it had evacuated passengers to “safe locations” during the barrage, before it re-opened at around 11am.

Konstantin, walking near the refinery in the southeastern Kapotnya district, told AFP he had “never seen anything like it”.

Valentina, a 29-year-old manager said she was woken up by the noise.

“It’s really scary,” she told AFP, walking in the park with her daughter, the huge column of smoke behind them.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that “several drones” had reached the Moscow oil refinery, without specifying damage to the facility.

Authorities announced they had closed traffic on streets nearby.

Another drone crashed into an apartment building, while drone debris sparked a fire at a shopping centre near the capital’s suburbs.

One social media video showed smoke pouring from the upper floors of an apartment block, while a woman behind the camera could be heard weeping in distress.

‘Long-range sanctions’

Russian air defences shot down around 180 drones on approach to Moscow, Sobyanin said, while the defence ministry reported it had intercepted more than 500 Ukrainian drones across the entire country overnight.

Kyiv has stepped up its drone strikes on Russia in recent months – calling them “long-range sanctions” and hitting oil refineries that fund Moscow’s war chest.

It was the second Ukrainian strike on the Moscow refinery this week.

Diplomatic talks on ending the more than four-year conflict remain stalled.

“It is time the war ended, and Russia must take the necessary steps in diplomacy,” Zelensky said after the strike.

Russia also launched more than 200 drones and multiple ballistic missiles at Ukraine between late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

AFP reporters in Kyiv saw people rushing to shelters in the early hours after air defence blasts rocked over the Ukrainian capital.

Putin in Kazan

In the hours following the attack, Putin posed for a photo with leaders at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Kazan and made no mention of the strike in his opening remarks to the forum.

Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore sent their prime ministers to Kazan, while the Philippines sent President Ferdinand Marcos.

Putin has long sought to project stability in Russia, despite the economic and social effects of his four-year offensive on Ukraine.

However, a recent spate of attacks has forced the Kremlin to respond.

After Kyiv launched similar attacks on Saint Petersburg earlier this month, the Russian leader promised to bolster air defences.

US leader Donald Trump this week said Moscow should “make a deal” to end the Ukraine war.