Moscow came under drone attack on the morning of June 16. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, one of the drones damaged a key Moscow oil refinery.
Sobianin said on Telegram that 60 drones were shot down by Russian air defenses and rescue services are working at the crash sites. He later confirmed the intervention of the refinery. “One of the drones damaged the MNPZ. There are no injuries,” he wrote.
According to information source Exilenova+, a refinery is on fire in Moscow’s Kapotňa district. Photos and videos showing several successful strikes appeared on social networks. They caused a large-scale fire. The affected area is located approximately 15 kilometers from the Kremlin.
The Moscow Times reports that it is a Moscow oil refinery owned by Gazprom. According to the daily, the facility processes up to 14 million tons of crude oil annually, covers about 40 percent of Moscow’s fuel market and about 70 percent of Moscow and the Moscow Region’s gasoline and jet kerosene needs.
The command reported on the attack special operations of the armed forces of Ukraine. It said on Facebook that the Moscow refinery is of key importance for the Russian metropolis and the entire central region. “The refinery is also an important link in aviation fuel logistics for the Moscow air hub,” the command added, noting that a large-scale fire had broken out at the facility.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, wrote that, according to him, even the concentration of Russian air and missile defense near Moscow did not protect the Russians. “Putin is not a guarantor of security for a Muscovite,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack on the Moscow region and thanked everyone who, according to him, participated in the use of Ukrainian long-range weapons. “Moscow region felt Ukraine’s long range this time. An oil refinery was hit at a distance of 500 kilometers,” he wrote on Telegram.
Zelenskyy described the attacks on Moscow and its surroundings as a “just response to Russian strikes” and added that Russia must be forced to end the war against Ukraine. According to the source text, Russian forces attacked Kyiv on Monday, where they also hit the well-known Orthodox monastery Kyiv Pecherská Lavra.
