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Moscow oil refinery engulfed in flames after drone attack

2026-06-18 09:21:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ukrainian drones struck a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week, sending flames and clouds of smoke over the southeastern Kapotnya district on Thursday morning.

“Air defense forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach [the Moscow oil refinery],” said Sergei Sobyanin, the city’s mayor, adding that a shopping mall was also damaged. He claimed that about 180 drones heading towards the capital had been shot down.

Traffic came to a standstill on the Moscow Ring Road near the refinery, RIA news agency quoted the interior ministry as saying.

The first attack, on Tuesday, was already understood to have halted operations at the refinery, adding to widespread damage to Russian energy facilities and deepening the country's fuel crisis. Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer and a major exporter of oil and fuel, will import fuel by sea this month as it seeks to manage a gasoline shortage following widespread Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries.

In the region surrounding Moscow, a multi-story residential building, an industrial facility and a number of private homes were also damaged in the drone attack, the regional governor said. Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow's busiest, suspended flights and evacuated people, some of whom sought shelter in the parking lot, the airport said.

Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions overnight. The number of drones actually shot down could not be independently confirmed.

Kiev came under its second air attack this week as Russia fired ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian capital, city officials said, as residents were urged to take shelter.

Authorities in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person was killed in a drone strike. Airstrike alerts were issued for most of Ukraine.

One person was killed in the Ukrainian town of Enerhodar, where most of the staff of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant live, the Russian-appointed mayor, Maxim Pukhov, said. In Russia's border region of Belgorod, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in his car.

On Wednesday, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking a bus carrying Belarusian children, an accusation that Kiev called false. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and set two commercial buildings on fire, officials said. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.