Kyiv: Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow in years on Thursday, igniting fires across the Russian capital and surrounding areas while forcing emergency evacuations at the nation’s busiest airport, officials confirmed.
Grainy, unverified footage circulating online allegedly depicted towering plumes of dark smoke choking the city’s horizon, accompanied by another clip capturing drones swarming through the air above.
The sweeping strike unfolded just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to convene with Southeast Asian dignitaries at an ASEAN summit in Kazan, a central Russian city positioned roughly 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of Moscow, AFP reported.
In the months leading up to this assault, Kyiv has intensified drone operations deep into Russia, targeting petroleum processing facilities that replenish Moscow’s military funding, even as diplomatic negotiations to end the conflict—now spanning more than four years—remain deadlocked.
“Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the MNPZ (Moscow Oil Refinery),” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram, as authorities shut down vehicular traffic on roads surrounding the refinery.
Sobyanin omitted specifics on facility damage, yet multiple Russian news organizations reported the refinery was engulfed in flames.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo—Russia’s most heavily trafficked airport—declared it had moved passengers to “safe locations” amid the drone onslaught and imposed flight limitations.
Andrey Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, stated another drone struck an apartment complex in Zhukovsky district, while drone fragments ignited a blaze at a shopping mall near the capital’s outer neighbourhoods.
Sobyanin claimed Russian air defence systems destroyed 180 drones approaching Moscow, while the Russian defense ministry announced interception of more than 500 Ukrainian drones overnight.
TASS, Russia’s state-run news agency, characterized this as the biggest attack on Moscow in at least two years.
Since the war erupted in 2022, Russia has subjected Ukraine to almost daily aerial assaults involving drones and missiles.
Putin’s Kazan Summit Under Shadow
This drone barrage arrived mere hours before Putin was poised to welcome Southeast Asian leaders for the ASEAN summit in Kazan.
Prime ministers from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Singapore were present, with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos representing his country.
Ground advances on the Ukrainian battlefield have decelerated this year, whereas Kyiv has exponentially multiplied strikes within Russian territory.
Putin has consistently rejected invitations for direct face-to-face discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asserting Moscow’s intention to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region through military force.
