Thick black smoke rises near Gazprom Neft’s Moscow oil refinery on the southeastern edge of the Russian capital on June 18, 2026.
– | Afp | Getty Images
Russia has vowed to launch regular and “massive group strikes” on Ukraine, shortly after Kyiv carried out a major drone assault on Moscow that set off a large explosion at one of the capital’s most important oil refineries.
Ukrainian forces mounted an extensive attack on Moscow from Wednesday night into Thursday, with a major refinery on the city’s southeastern outskirts among the main targets.
Reports said close to 200 drones were deployed, making it Ukraine’s largest air attack to date on the Russian capital. Officials said 16 people were injured, and four Moscow airports briefly suspended flights.
By Thursday, towering plumes of black smoke could be seen coming from Gazprom’s Moscow Refinery, a site Ukrainian forces have struck several times in recent weeks.
“It is no coincidence that the president announced some time ago, after yet another Kyiv terrorist attack, that we will now conduct massive group strikes on a regular basis against targets whose condition directly affects the combat readiness of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Thursday on the sidelines of an event in Kazan, according to Interfax.
Ukraine has repeatedly gone after Russian oil infrastructure in an effort to squeeze Moscow’s energy income and increase pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the four-year war.
Ukraine seeks Trump support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes on Moscow were in response to attacks from Russia on a historic monastery complex in Kyiv earlier in the week. Russia has said it did not strike the Pechersk Lavra monastery.
“This is a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities, and another important result of our warriors’ work against facilities that sustain Russia’s war machine,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Thursday.
“In recent days, all of our partners have noted the precision and effectiveness of our mid-range strikes and long-range sanctions. It is time the war ended, and Russia must take the necessary steps in diplomacy,” he added.
Black smoke rises from the area of the Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft’s Moscow oil refinery on the south-eastern outskirts of Moscow on June 18, 2026.
– | Afp | Getty Images
Russian “milbloggers” who closely follow and comment on the war on social media, responded to the strikes on Moscow by raising concern about Russian air defenses and censorship, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington D.C.-based think tank.
The ISW added that the increasing frequency, size and depth of Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign against heavily defended major Russian cities, notably Moscow and St. Petersburg, “demonstrate growing vulnerabilities in Russian air defenses and dilemmas in how the Kremlin chooses to interact with the domestic costs of the war it started.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with East Timor’s Prime Minister on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit, which commemorates 35 years of collaboration between Russia and the ASEAN countries, in the central Russian city of Kazan, around 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of the capital Moscow, on June 18, 2026. (Photo by Anastasia Barashkova / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Anastasia Barashkova | Afp | Getty Images
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy has been seeking to garner support from both the U.S. and Europe to reach a deal to end the war.
Earlier in the week, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to provide further assistance to Ukraine and urged the Kremlin to “make a deal” to end the Ukraine war. “I’m going to do whatever I can,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
The U.S. president added that he had spoken to Zelenskyy and Putin in recent days, saying both countries had “lost tremendous amounts of people.”
