Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow

Plumes of smoke rise above the Moscow oil refinery after what the Russian capital’s mayor called a ‘large-scale’ drone attack by Ukraine. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters View image in fullscreen Plumes of smoke rise above the Moscow oil refinery after what the Russian capital’s mayor called a ‘large-scale’ drone attack by Ukraine. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow Scale of long range-attack catches Muscovites by surprise, prompting panicked messages on social media Europe live – latest updates Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow, including setting an ⁠oil refinery on fire, sending out flames and towering plumes ⁠of smoke over the city and forcing the capital’s airports to suspend flights. The scale of the long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotno area, caught most Muscovites by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media. Footage posted online showed three plumes of smoke rising from the refinery. The strike was the second in two days on the facility, in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then called “a just response to Russian strikes”. View image in fullscreen Building on fire following Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow on Thursday. Photograph: Social media/Reuters The Ukrainian strikes came after Kyiv was hit by a major strike of ballistic missiles and drones , in a marked escalation of the air war between Moscow and Kyiv. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had warned of impending “systemic strikes” on Ukraine. “Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” said Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, adding that a shopping centre was also damaged. He claimed ‌about 180 drones heading for the capital had ‌been downed. Sobyanin said emergency crews were working at the site and also reported “damage” to Sadovod shopping centre in the south-eastern part of the city. At least seven drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city. Traffic was halted ​on Moscow’s ring road near ⁠the refinery, the broadcaster RIA ​cited ‌the ​interior ministry ​as saying, while air traffic was disrupted at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports. Footage posted on social media also appeared to show the strike on the top floors of a high rise building in the Zhukovsky district. An earlier strike on Tuesday was understood to have already halted operations at the refinery, adding to widespread damage to Russian energy facilities and extending a ​fuel crisis deeper into the country. Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer and ‌a major oil and fuel exporter, is to import fuel by sea this month as it seeks to manage a shortage after extensive Ukrainian drone attacks on its refineries. Ukraine war brie