Ukraine launches its largest-ever drone attack on Moscow, hitting an oil refinery: justified retaliation, or terrorism against civilians?
Ukraine launched nearly 1,000 drones and four cruise missiles at Russia in 24 hours, striking a Moscow-region oil refinery and leaving residents breathing 'black rain' from burning fuel. Seventeen people were wounded in the Moscow region. President Zelensky said the strike was a direct answer to last week's Russian attack on Kyiv, which set ablaze the historic Pechersk Lavra monastery. Russia's defence ministry said its air defences intercepted most drones; Moscow's local government urged children, the elderly and asthmatics to urgently leave affected districts and keep windows closed.
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
President Zelensky confirmed the drone campaign — Ukraine's largest aerial assault on Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion — as a direct response to Russia's attack on Kyiv last week, which set fire to the Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO-listed Orthodox monastery and one of Ukraine's most sacred cultural landmarks. NPR reports Ukraine launched nearly a thousand drones and four cruise missiles at targets across Russia in a 24-hour period, hitting an oil refinery in the Moscow region and an oil depot in the southern Rostov region. Ukraine frames the strikes as targeting military-economic infrastructure — oil facilities that fuel Russia's war machine — and as a proportionate response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and cultural heritage.
Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov reported 17 people wounded and columns of thick smoke over the region after the strikes. Residents in the south-east of Moscow told the BBC that a fine drizzle had left 'unpleasant black spots' on their clothes — the residue of burning fuel from the struck refinery. Moscow's official Telegram channel warned residents to keep windows closed and urged 'families with children, elderly people and asthmatics to urgently leave the area.' Russia's defence ministry said it intercepted and destroyed almost 1,000 drones and four cruise missiles across the country, framing the attack as deliberate targeting of residential areas near the Russian capital.
