Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
After weeks of intensifying Russian bombing of Kiev, Ukraine hammered Moscow with a swarm of drone strikes in what appeared to be the largest attack on the capital since President Vladimir Putin plunged the region into full-scale war in February 2022.
The dramatic strikes came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met President Donald Trump at a Group of Seven summit in France, putting Russia's war back on the White House agenda after months of focus on its war against Iran.
Trump urged Russia to make a deal to end the war and decried the high number of soldiers being killed, but conceded there was no end in sight.
In remarks to journalists Thursday, Zelensky said the strikes on Moscow were retaliation for the recent attack on the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a church and monastery complex in central Kiev regarded as one of the holiest Orthodox sites in the world.
"Despite three layers of air defense systems deployed in Moscow, we can still reach them," Zelensky said. "We certainly do not want Ukraine to be burning because of the enemy. But if Ukraine is burning, your Moscow will be burning, as well."
Zelensky once again urged Russia to cease its attacks on Ukraine.
By Thursday morning, exploding drones had left smoldering debris in at least 10 areas of Moscow and the wider capital region, including setting off a renewed fire at a major oil refinery, which sent up plumes of thick black smoke that hung ominously over the region.
The refinery in Kapotnya, a few miles outside Moscow, supplies a large amount of the city's fuel and was struck for a second time within a week.
The refinery supplies up to 40 percent of the capital's gasoline and about half of its diesel. The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that air defense forces had shot down 194 drones flying toward the capital. Governor of the wider Moscow region Andrei Vorobyev said that at least 17 people have been injured in the attacks, including two children. All four Moscow airports suspended operations, canceling or delaying more than 260 flights.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a briefing that a total of at least 992 drones were shot down over Russia in the past 24 hours, making it the highest reported number since 2022.
Residents in the Moscow region for the first time reported "black oil rain," which occurs when massive fires at oil refineries send thick soot and toxic hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.
In Zheleznodorozhny, a town east of Moscow, people posted pictures appearing to show traces of petroleum products or soot on windowsills and cars.
In two other towns around Moscow, residents reported a foul smell and similar smudges of a dark, sticky substance on windows and other surfaces.
Local news outlets reported that the wind is likely to carry the pollution to other towns northeast of the capital over the next day.
The regional Ecology Ministry, in comments to the Moscow news portal MSK1, denied the appearance of "oil rains." The ministry said that people noticed soot settling on surfaces, "the same kind produced by a stove or a campfire."
The ministry added that air-quality-monitoring stations had not recorded pollution exceeding permissible limits. At the same time, it advised residents to minimize time outdoors, avoid leaving their homes unless necessary, refrain from opening windows and wear masks.
Russian state television channels limited coverage of the strikes to a minute or less of airtime, but images of the smoke plumes have flooded social media, even as many Russians are wary of sharing the aftermath of the Ukrainian attacks online.
The online activity indicated that Ukraine at least partially was succeeding in its goal of making Muscovites feel the brunt of the war raging about 700 miles to the west after largely being unimpacted for years. Kiev residents, by contrast, are often seeking shelter multiple times per week.
By bringing the war home to residents of the capital, Kiev also hopes to increase public pressure on Putin to come to the negotiating table.
In recent months, Russian authorities issued orders across at least 30 regions banning the spread of information about drone strikes and the damage they cause. Moscow adopted a similar decree last month, with violators facing fines from about $40 to $2,700.
Pro-war Russian military bloggers have rushed to claim that Russian air defense systems successfully deterred most of the drones heading deep into Russian territory over the past week.
The Rybar Telegram channel, close to the Defense Ministry and run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, said that "100 percent air defense effectiveness is a myth" but conceded that "it is precisely the small fraction of drones that do reach their targets that makes the difference."
The Ukrainian military spends far less on these drones, the Rybar channel said, than "the losses incurred by [Russian] enterprises due to the disruption of export capabilities."
The ultimate effect of Ukraine's drone strikes is impossible to predict. Putin has shown no sign of giving up on his goal of taking the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, whether by force or by having Ukraine surrender it in a deal.
The Russian president spoke Thursday at the forum of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kazan, welcoming the agreement between the U.S. and Iran, but he had yet to comment on Thursday's attacks on the Russian capital.
Other high-ranking Russian officials continued to toe the line that Russia would not back down from the war unless its core objectives were satisfied.
In a comment on the attacks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled a recent threat by Putin to "carry out massive, coordinated strikes on a regular basis" against targets on which Ukrainian combat readiness depends.
"This is a task set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and our armed forces are carrying it out and will continue to do so," Lavrov told Russian state media.
Vladimir Solovyev, one of Russia's top television propagandists, said during a live stream on his channel that "hysterical" people rattled by the drone strikes on Moscow should leave the city, and urged that those who post and share videos of the aftermath be jailed.
"Don't be hysterical - think. I think we need to introduce military censorship," Solovyev said, adding that Russia will retaliate soon after Putin wraps up the forum in Kazan and gives the corresponding orders.
Ukraine and European leaders have been pushing for Trump to help facilitate a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin in the United States. Russia repeatedly has rejected the idea of such an encounter unless Ukraine is ready to capitulate, or if Zelensky goes to Moscow.
Weeks of sustained Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities using long-range drones have forced many of Russia's regions to start rationing fuel.
Sergey Vakulenko, an energy expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in a recent podcast that Russian refining volumes fell to about 4.3 million in the last week of May from roughly 5.3 million barrels per day in March - a drop of about 20 percent.
Vakulenko also said Ukraine's strategy appeared to have evolved. While earlier strikes often hit primary distillation units involved in the first stage of processing crude, more recent strikes have damaged secondary equipment that is more complex and takes longer to repair.
Earlier this year, Ukraine tried to curb Russia's global energy exports to hurt the government's wartime coffers, but at the moment Russia's crude exports are at their highest levels since 2022, while its domestic market remains under strain. The war in Iran has boosted Russian oil sales.
"The logic is probably more about bringing the pain of the war home to Russians," Vakulenko said.
(COMMENT, BELOW)