After weeks of intensifying Russian bombing of Kyiv, Ukraine hammered Moscow with a swarm of drone strikes in what appeared to be the largest attack on the capital since President Vladimir Putin plunged the region into full-scale war in February 2022.
The dramatic strikes came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met President Donald Trump at a Group of Seven summit in France, putting Russia’s war back on the White House agenda after months of focus on its war against Iran.
Trump urged Russia to make a deal to end the war and decried the high number of soldiers being killed, but conceded there was no end in sight.
In remarks to journalists Thursday, Zelensky said the strikes on Moscow were retaliation for the recent attack on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a church and monastery complex in central Kyiv regarded as one of the holiest Orthodox sites in the world.
“Despite three layers of air defense systems deployed in Moscow, we can still reach them,” Zelensky said. “We certainly do not want Ukraine to be burning because of the enemy. But if Ukraine is burning, your Moscow will be burning, as well.”
Zelensky once again urged Russia to cease its attacks on Ukraine.
By Thursday morning, exploding drones had left smoldering debris in at least 10 areas of Moscow and the wider capital region, including setting off a renewed fire at a major oil refinery, which sent up plumes of thick black smoke that hung ominously over the region.
The refinery in Kapotnya, a few miles outside Moscow, supplies a large amount of the city’s fuel and was struck for a second time within a week.
The refinery supplies up to 40 percent of the capital’s gasoline and about half of its diesel. The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that air defense forces had shot down 194 drones flying toward the capital. All four Moscow airports suspended operations, canceling or delaying more than 260 flights.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing that a total of at least 555 drones were shot down over Russia overnight.
Residents in the Moscow region for the first time reported “black oil rain,” which occurs when massive fires at oil refineries send thick soot and toxic hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.
In Zheleznodorozhny, a town east of Moscow, people posted pictures appearing to show traces of petroleum products or soot on windowsills and cars.
In two other towns around Moscow, residents reported a foul smell and similar smudges of a dark, sticky substance on windows and other surfaces.
Local news outlets reported that the wind is likely to carry the pollution to other towns northeast of the capital over the next day.
The regional Ecology Ministry, in comments to the Moscow news portal MSK1, denied the appearance of “oil rains.” The ministry said that people noticed soot settling on surfaces, “the same kind produced by a stove or a campfire.”
The ministry added that air-quality-monitoring stations had not recorded pollution exceeding permissible limits. At the same time, it advised residents to minimize time outdoors, avoid leaving their homes unless necessary, refrain from opening windows and wear masks.
Ukraine and European leaders have been pushing for Trump to help facilitate a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin in the United States. Russia repeatedly has rejected the idea of such an encounter unless Ukraine is ready to capitulate, or if Zelensky goes to Moscow.
Weeks of sustained Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities using long-range drones have forced many of Russia’s regions to start rationing fuel.
Sergey Vakulenko, an energy expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in a recent podcast that Russian refining volumes fell to about 4.3 million in the last week of May from roughly 5.3 million barrels per day in March — a drop of about 20 percent.
Vakulenko also said Ukraine’s strategy appeared to have evolved. While earlier strikes often hit primary distillation units involved in the first stage of processing crude, more recent strikes have damaged secondary equipment that is more complex and takes longer to repair.
Earlier this year, Ukraine tried to curb Russia’s global energy exports to hurt the government’s wartime coffers, but at the moment Russia’s crude exports are at their highest levels since 2022, while its domestic market remains under strain. The war in Iran has boosted Russian oil sales.
“The logic is probably more about bringing the pain of the war home to Russians,” Vakulenko said.
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