Ukraine drone strike hits Russian oil refinery, Zelenskyy says “Moscow will burn” if Putin continues war

Ukraine hit a major Moscow oil refinery for a second time in a week and disrupted commercial flights at Moscow airports in one of its biggest drone attacks since Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, Russian officials said Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attacks retaliation for a strike that damaged a historic monastery in Kyiv this week, and he said “Moscow will burn” if the Russian attacks continue.
 
“We don’t want this war, we never did, and everyone knows it, and our partners know it,” Zelenskiy said in a voice message sent to reporters on a WhatsApp group. “But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”

“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,” he said.

The attack came hours after Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron that may “bring about significant change.”

Zelenskyy said his country had won key pledges of further support from world leaders attending the G7 summit in France, including the U.S.

Images and video released by the Russian media showed massive fires raging at the Moscow Oil Refinery, located only around 9 miles from the Kremlin. Thick black clouds of smoke rose over the city.

The Moscow Oil Refinery is one of Russia’s biggest refineries, according to its official website, and accounts for more than a third of the fuel market of the capital region. It was last attacked by Ukrainian drones on June 16, catching fire, but officials said the blaze was swiftly put out.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russia’s oil facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion.

Three Ukrainian officials familiar with the country’s intelligence assessments told CBS News this week that Russia was facing shortages of a key type of interceptor missile, thanks in large part to advances in Ukrainian drone technology and production leading to an increase in the kind of strikes carried out Thursday.

Flights from four Moscow airports were temporarily halted, transport and aviation authorities said.

In the surrounding Moscow region, a drone hit a residential building in the town of Zhukovsky, and the building was being evacuated, according to Gov. Andrei Vorobyov.

Elsewhere in the region, drone debris hit private houses, a car, a fitness center, an unspecified industrial facility and a large mall, whose roof caught fire, Vorobyov said. One woman was injured, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defenses overnight shot down 555 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions, with almost 200 intercepted as they were approaching the Russian capital.

That was roughly double the number of drones that Russia launched at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.

The attack was the latest embarrassment for Russian President Vladimir Putin after a Ukrainian drone attack on his hometown of St. Petersburg earlier this month just as he held a showcase economic forum in the city with foreign VIP visitors.

Putin on Thursday was in Kazan, some 430 miles east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as Russia seeks to bolster business and other ties with the nations of the regional bloc.

“This is a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities, and another important result of our warriors’ work against facilities that sustain Russia’s war machine,” Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said on social media. “It is time the war ended, and Russia must take the necessary steps in diplomacy.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X: “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.”

As well as gaining pledges of more diplomatic and military help from Western supporters at the G7 summit, Ukraine recently has gained momentum on the battlefield against Russia’s bigger army thanks to its high-tech drones, Western officials and analysts say.

As well as disrupting Russian oil production, longer-range drone strikes are choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine.

Macron said the G7 summit was “very important for Ukraine” because its supporters – crucially including the United States – vowed to help it, although the French president provided no details. The U.S. under Trump has cut back assistance to Ukraine, leaving the Europeans as the biggest suppliers of military and financial aid. Trump and Zelenskyy have had an at times strained relationship.

″America is with us on Ukraine, that is very important,″ Macron said.

″And now we will continue to advance to help Ukraine to resist″ and to build up its ″capacity to defend itself and capacity to counterattack,” Macron told reporters as he and Trump left the Palace of Versailles near Paris.