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.
The attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron that may “bring about significant change.”
Zelenskyy said Wednesday his country had won key pledges of further support from world leaders attending the G7 summit in France, including the United States.
Images and video released by the Russian media showed massive fires raging at the Moscow Oil Refinery, located about 15 kilometers (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.
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.
