Massive Ukrainian drone strike triggers explosions across Moscow area

He claimed that Russian air defenses shot down at least 47 drones.

No further information regarding the attack has been released at this time.

Russian Defense Ministry at the same time stated that air defense allegedly destroyed 660 drones overnight on June 26.

According to the Russian agency, the UAVs were downed over the territories of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol, Kaluga, Lipetsk, Rostov, Voronezh, Tula, Ryazan, and Astrakhan oblasts, as well as over Moscow Oblast, temporarily occupied Crimea, and the waters of the Black and Azov seas.

UAV attacks on Moscow Oil Refinery

On the morning of June 18, Moscow faced a massive attack by hundreds of drones, with explosions ringing out and footage of large-scale fires circulating online. Ukrainian Defense Forces confirmed a repeat strike on Moscow's largest oil refinery, located in the Kapotnya district — just 15 kilometers from the Kremlin. Fires broke out in at least five locations at the plant, enveloping Moscow in black smoke. Russian media reported that this was the largest attack on the Russian capital since the start of the war.

According to the General Staff, the strike damaged an integrated oil refining unit, three RVS-10000 storage tanks, and one RVS-30000 storage tank at the refinery.

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) concluded that the Ukrainian strikes on Moscow exposed vulnerabilities in Russian air defenses, while Russian "milbloggers" openly criticized censorship and the authorities' inability to protect the population from the consequences of the war following the attacks.

On June 19, Moscow was targeted again by dozens of drones, with local authorities claiming that only "debris" had fallen.