Guardian: Ukrainian drones hit multiple locations across Moscow, oil refinery set on fire

Ukrainian drones have hit multiple locations across Moscow, including an oil refinery, which they set on fire, sending flames and thick columns of smoke rising above the city, while Moscow airports were forced to suspend flights, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.

The scale of this long-range attack, which was apparently aimed at shutting down a key oil refinery in the Kapotnya area, surprised most residents of Moscow, a city where authorities do not usually warn citizens with air raid sirens, and triggered a wave of alarmed messages on social media, the Guardian said in a text on its portal.

Footage posted on social media showed three columns of smoke rising from the refinery. The attack was the second in two days on the facility, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a "just response to Russian strikes."

The Ukrainian attacks came as the Ukrainian capital Kiev was hit by a powerful barrage of ballistic missiles and drones, a significant escalation in the air war between Russia and Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of impending "systemic strikes" on Ukraine.

"Air defense forces continue to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach (the Moscow oil refinery)," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, adding that a shopping mall was also damaged. He claimed that about 180 drones flying towards the Russian capital were shot down.

Sobyanin said emergency crews were working at the scene, and he also reported "damage" to the Sadovod shopping mall in the southeast of the city. At least seven drones appeared to have breached Russian air defenses and hit targets in the city, according to the Guardian.

Traffic was suspended on the Moscow Ring Road near the refinery, RIA television reported, citing the Interior Ministry, while air traffic at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky airports was also disrupted.

Footage posted on social media also appeared to show the upper floors of a high-rise building in the Zhukovsky district being hit.

According to earlier information, a previous attack on Tuesday had already halted the refinery's operations, further spreading damage to Russian energy facilities and deepening the country's fuel crisis.

Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer and a major exporter of oil and fuel, will import fuel by sea this month, seeking to address shortages after widespread Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries.

In the surrounding Moscow region, a drone strike damaged a residential building, an industrial facility and several private homes, the regional governor said. Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow's busiest, suspended flights and evacuated people. Some sought shelter in a parking lot, the airport said.

Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight. The number of drones actually shot down could not be independently confirmed.

Kiev was the target of a second airstrike this week, as Russia fired ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian capital, city officials said, urging residents to seek shelter.

Authorities in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person had been killed in a drone strike. Airstrike warnings were issued for much of Ukraine.

One person was killed in the Ukrainian city of Energodar, home to most of the staff at the Russian-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, said the Russian-appointed mayor, Maxim Pukhov. In the Russian border region of Belgorod, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in his car.

Moscow accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking a bus carrying Belarusian children, a charge Kiev dismissed as false. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and set two commercial buildings on fire, officials said. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.