Ukraine brings the war to Moscow as huge blasts shake refinery

MOSCOW, June 18 - The blast was so powerful that the huge disc-shaped lid of an oil storage tank was launched into the sky over Moscow like a frisbee.

Evading Russian air defences, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in southeast Moscow on Thursday for the second time in three days, igniting a fierce blaze that spewed out clouds of black smoke.

The attacks are part of a wider Ukrainian campaign to cripple the oil industry whose revenues finance Russia's war effort.

But by striking with apparent impunity at a piece of critical infrastructure located inside Moscow's ring road, just 16 km (10 miles) from the Kremlin, Ukraine is also sending a message to ordinary Russians.

"One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is 'What is going on?' I can answer. Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people. Now that you know what's going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X.

Kyiv says its strikes deep inside Russia are evidence that it is turning the tide of the war - a message that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took this week to U.S. President Donald Trump and other G7 leaders at a summit in France.

A Kremlin aide denied on Thursday that the battlefield situation was shifting in Ukraine's favour and said Trump had been "pumped up" with harmful ideas at the meeting. There was no immediate comment from President Vladimir Putin, who was hosting leaders from Southeast Asia at a summit in the city of Kazan.

ATTACK CAUSES MAJOR DISRUPTION

Throughout more than four years of war, political analysts and opinion pollsters say many Russians have sought to shut out the reality of the conflict - still described by the Kremlin as a "special military operation" - and get on with their lives.

Moscow has been periodically hit by drones since as far back as May 2023, when two of them reached the Kremlin itself, without causing damage. Until now such attacks had scarcely intruded on everyday life in the city of 13 million people.

On Thursday, however, there was major disruption across the capital. Flights were suspended at all Moscow airports and traffic halted on the highway around the city near the refinery. Sheremetyevo airport, Moscow's busiest, was evacuated.

In online chat rooms, some residents complained about the lack of warning, saying no sirens had sounded.

A Moscow news channel reported that suburban residents said a shower of rain had left spots and smears of oil on cars and window sills.

In a sign of the broader economic impact of Ukrainian attacks, gasoline shortages have emerged in some parts of the country in recent weeks.

Russia, the world's third-biggest oil producer and a major oil and fuel exporter, is set to import fuel by sea this month, industry sources have told Reuters.

Moscow authorities said the petrol situation in and around the capital was "normal", but the federal anti-monopoly watchdog asked a major retailer to explain why it had hiked prices by 19% in the past week for the most popular grade of gasoline.

For Kyiv, the value of the attacks is partly symbolic. Images of fire and destruction in the Russian capital spread rapidly across the internet, often accompanied by mocking and gleeful comments at Moscow's expense.

Andrei Medvedev, a pro-government blogger and Russian TV host, said those who posted such footage should be prosecuted.

"A few days ago, some idiots filmed and posted the video, and the enemy watched it, assessed it, and adjusted the next strike. So, those who posted the video are committing pure treason," he wrote on Telegram. REUTERS