The mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, reported via Telegram that the air defense forces worked tirelessly to repel the incursion, while emergency protocols were activated to deal with the consequences at the industrial plant.
The magnitude of the attack was such that Russian authorities claimed to have shot down 180 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region. This situation caused chaos in air transport, forcing the Rosaviatsiya agency to temporarily suspend operations at all major airports in the city, including Sheremetyevo, where security alerts were activated as a precaution. This is the second successful impact on the same refinery in a single week, following the attack last Tuesday that had already caused fires and previous damage.
From Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that his armed forces carried out these actions from "long distance" successfully. Zelensky released a video showing the refinery facilities under a thick layer of smoke and flames, a version supported by the Ukrainian General Staff, which identified five different fires in the complex. According to the military command in Kiev, the fire has severely affected several oil processing units and critical crude storage areas.
This strategic blow coincides with the two-day summit in Kazan, where Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts various Asian leaders as part of the Russia-ASEAN meeting. The intensification of these operations by Ukraine is a deliberate tactic to block Kremlin's revenue from hydrocarbon sales, which are the main source of funding for the war that began in 2022.