Ukrainian drones have hit a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week while Russia fired missiles at Kyiv, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeks support from the United States and Europe to reach a deal to end the war.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its air defences shot down 555 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, with almost 200 intercepted as they approached the Russian capital.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said several drones struck an oil refinery.
“Air defence forces continue to repel a massive attack. Several drones managed to reach the Moscow oil refinery,” Sobyanin said, adding that a shopping centre also suffered minor damage.
The attack on the oil facility was the second this week. A drone strike on Tuesday halted operations at the refinery, according to the Reuters news agency, as widespread damage to Russian energy facilities worsens the country’s fuel crisis.
The regional governor said that, in the surrounding Moscow region, a high-rise residential building, an industrial facility, and a number of private houses were also damaged in the drone attack.
Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s busiest, suspended flights and evacuated people, with several passengers seeking shelter in the car park, the airport said in a statement.
Kyiv, meanwhile, came under a second Russian air attack this week as ballistic missiles were launched at the Ukrainian capital, city officials said.
“The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic missiles. Stay in safe places until the air raid alert is over!” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said in a Telegram post.
Authorities in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said one person was killed in a drone attack.
Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said nine locations were hit after at least 239 drones and seven ballistic missiles were launched at Ukraine overnight.
“Ukraine says that it was able to intercept the majority of them,” she added.
Earlier this week, a major Russian attack on Kyiv killed 11 people and damaged a UNESCO-listed 1,000-year-old monastery, drawing condemnation from European leaders. Russia denied striking the monastery.
The attacks come as Zelenskyy works to pressure Russia into negotiating an end to its more than four-year-long war. Zelenskyy said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and other G7 leaders to coordinate efforts to end the war.
G7 leaders pledged to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and increase pressure on Moscow’s war economy, including by tightening sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sectors.
Trump told reporters he was “gonna do whatever I can” to end the war.
Zelenskyy said he received important commitments from the G7, including “more air defence missiles along with licences to produce them, and a winter support package.”
“Importantly, the US is ready to provide a backstop across these lines of effort,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “It is key that everything discussed be implemented. Russia must learn that its war will never be normalised.”
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