Moscow Drone Barrage Kills Two, Damages Major Oil Refinery

War reaches the capital on election day

A vast Ukrainian drone and missile assault struck Moscow and its surrounding region on Sunday, killing two people and damaging the capital’s main oil refinery, Russian officials said. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defenses downed 450 drones approaching the city, while Russia’s Defense Ministry reported 1,110 interceptions nationwide overnight; neither tally has been independently verified.abcnews +1 The attack came on the final day of Russia’s tightly controlled parliamentary election, the first since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.globalbankingandfinance +1

Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov said a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man died in separate strikes. Officials reported 20 injuries, while a fire at a 21-storey apartment building forced 400 residents to evacuate.aljazeera +1 All four of Moscow’s international airports temporarily restricted flights before reopening Sunday morning.abcnews

Refinery strike targets wartime revenue

Several weapons reached the Moscow Oil Refinery at Kapotnya, a Gazprom-operated facility with reported annual processing capacity of about 11 million tonnes.abcnews Sobyanin acknowledged damage at the site, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as a key oil-industry facility generating billions of dollars for Russia’s “war machine.”aljazeera Early reports that a major crude-processing unit was damaged remained unconfirmed.eutoday

Kyiv has increasingly attacked Russian refineries and logistics infrastructure, seeking to reduce fuel supplies and oil revenue available for the war. Ukraine also reported a strike on the Sofyino logistics complex outside Moscow, though the weapons used and full extent of the damage could not be independently established.eutoday Russia’s mayor called the operation an attempt to disrupt voting; he offered no public evidence for that motive.globalbankingandfinance +1

Both sides intensify long-range attacks

Zelenskyy said the operation used several domestically produced weapons, including the Flamingo cruise missile and Pelican ballistic missile. The Guardian reported this was Kyiv’s first acknowledged wartime use of a ballistic missile, though the Pelican’s estimated 350-kilometre range means it was unlikely to have struck Moscow itself.theguardian Ukrainian manufacturer Fire Point said its FP-1 drones were used against the refinery.abcnews

The barrage unfolded alongside another deadly Russian attack on Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said Russia launched 138 drones overnight, with 101 intercepted or suppressed; strikes killed four people in the Kyiv region, including three children.aljazeera The parallel attacks underscore the accelerating contest in long-range weapons, with both countries trying to overwhelm air defenses and impose economic and civilian costs far beyond the front line.hurriyetdailynews +1