London: A drone strike on a Moscow oil depot has set off a fiery blast that sent the lid of a storage tank high into the air, in a new demonstration of Ukraine’s ability to reach targets deep inside Russia.
The explosion spread flames and black smoke throughout the facility on the outskirts of the Russian capital, inflicting economic pain on the Kremlin by hampering its ability to generate revenue from oil exports.
Ukrainian leaders cited the attack as a warning to the Russian people about the threat they faced if Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to negotiate a peace deal.
“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,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine has described its attacks as “sanctions” on the Russian economy, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko also noted that Russia was seeing the consequences of its attempt to “export” war.
“As Russia remains uninterested in ending the war, Ukraine will continue to deprive Moscow of the tools it uses to wage it,” she said.
“Russia believed war was something it could export. Ukraine’s ever-expanding strikes on Russia’s oil industry are ensuring that the consequences are brought home.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha was more pointed in a social media message on X.
“One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is, ‘What is going on?’” he posted.
“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.”
A Kremlin aide denied on Thursday that the battlefield situation was shifting in Ukraine’s favour and said that US President Donald Trump had been “pumped up” with harmful ideas at the G7 meeting in France. There was no immediate comment from Putin, who was hosting leaders from South-East Asia at a summit in the city of Kazan.
Moscow has been hit by drones since as far back as May 2023, when two of them reached the Kremlin itself, without causing damage. Until now, such attacks had scarcely intruded on everyday life in the city of 13 million people.
On Thursday, however, there was major disruption across the capital. Flights were suspended at all Moscow airports and traffic halted on the highway around the city near the refinery. Sheremetyevo airport, Moscow’s busiest, was evacuated.
Ukraine launched 992 drones at Russian targets on Thursday night, days after hitting the same Moscow fuel depot on Tuesday. Zelensky said the drones reached 500 kilometres from their launch sites.
The drones included a new design known as the Bars, which is akin to a missile powered by a jet engine rather than the propeller used with most drones.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov promised “massive group strikes” against Ukraine in response to the latest attacks, saying Putin had authorised the bigger strikes.
“It is no coincidence that the president announced some time ago, after another stunt by the Kyiv terrorists, that we would now carry out massive group strikes on a regular basis,” Lavrov said.
“This task has been set by the supreme commander-in-chief, and our armed forces are fulfilling it and will continue to fulfil it.”
While Russia continues to pound Kyiv and other cities with nightly missile strikes, European leaders argue that Ukraine has gained more momentum and can turn the attack on Putin.
“Russia is on the back foot: militarily, economically and politically,” said European Commission vice president and foreign affairs high representative Kaja Kallas.
“Now is the time to provide Ukraine with even greater support and to exert even more pressure on Russia to end the war.”
In a sign of the broader economic impact of Ukrainian attacks, petrol shortages have emerged in some parts of the country in recent weeks.
Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer and a major oil and fuel exporter, is set to import fuel by sea this month, industry sources have told Reuters.
David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
