Moscow Hit by Largest Drone Attack Since Start of War

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that several drones “managed to reach” the territory of the refinery and that the consequences of the attack were being dealt with. Telegram channels are publishing videos of the fire and thick black smoke over the city. One of the clips shows an explosion ripping the roof off a tank.

The plant in Kapotnya had already been hit by the Armed Forces of Ukraine two days earlier, on the night of June 16, and before that in mid-May. After those attacks, the facility suspended operations for safety reasons, according to Reuters sources.

During the June 18 attack, drone debris also fell on the territory of the Sadovod shopping center in southeastern Moscow. According to Sobyanin, “minor damage to one of the buildings” was recorded there.

In the Kotelniky area, traffic was blocked on Volgogradsky Prospekt and the Novoryazanskoye Highway. Sobyanin said that a total of 180 drones had been shot down on approach to Moscow and that air-defense operations were continuing. The outlet Agentstvo called the attack the largest since the start of the war, while TASS described it as the most extensive in two years.

During the overnight attack, all four Moscow airports—Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky—were closed. Sheremetyevo said airport services evacuated passengers to safe areas, including from aircraft. By morning, the restrictions had been lifted, but the airports were then closed again. The Transport Ministry explained the restrictions by the need to ensure flight safety. They were also introduced at airports in central Russia, including Kazan, where Vladimir Putin had arrived the day before.

In Zhukovsky, near Moscow, a drone hit an apartment building on Gagarin Street, Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said. The exit to the fire escape between the 23rd and 24th floors and two balcony slabs were damaged. According to preliminary data, no one was injured.

In the village of Stepanovo near Elektrostal, drone debris fell on a private house. A woman suffered a minor shoulder injury.

In Lyubertsy, drone debris fell in several places, damaging a fitness-center building and a facility in an industrial zone. In Kotelniky, drone debris fell on the roof of the Belaya Dacha shopping center, after which a fire broke out. Damage was also recorded in the village of Masnovo-Zhukovo, the settlement of Kryukovo in Chekhov district and in Pavlovsky Posad, where two country houses caught fire after debris fell.

Ukrainian drones also attacked Rostov region. One person was killed in the city of Gukovo, Governor Yuri Slyusar said. Two other injured people, employees of the freight station at the railway station in Gukovo, were taken to hospital. The attack damaged a diesel locomotive and set two commercial facilities on fire.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said air-defense forces shot down 555 Ukrainian drones overnight.