Russia vows ‘massive’ strikes after Ukraine hits Moscow
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia will regularly carry out “large-scale coordinated attacks” against Ukraine, following Ukraine’s massive drone attack on Moscow.
Ukrainian forces attacked a major Moscow oil refinery on Thursday for the second time in a week, sending huge clouds of black smoke over the capital and disrupting hundreds of flights at airports in one of the largest drone strikes, officials said.
Local officials said 17 people were injured and civilian infrastructure in the capital was damaged in the Ukrainian attacks.
The attack, carried out by dozens of drones, came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had held “an important coordination meeting” with the presidents of the United States and France and received promises of further support from this week’s G7 summit.
“If Ukraine will burn, your Moscow will also burn,” said Zelenskiy, adding that the attack was part of Ukraine’s effort to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
“It is time to end the aggression, to end this war.”
On Thursday, Putin was in Kazan, 700 kilometers east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as Russia seeks to strengthen trade and other ties with the regional bloc.
Russia’s state-controlled television channels only briefly mentioned the attack on Moscow.
Pro-Kremlin newspapers reported this; While some praised the air defense performance, they noted that the attack underlined the need to further strengthen the defensive shield around the capital.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, warned that Russia would respond by increasing its attacks.
“Their action will lead us to fight back and inflict harder blows with stronger weapons,” Volodin said in his televised speech.
Thick, black smoke and occasional flames billowed from the Moscow Oil Refinery from the middle of red-and-white smokestacks on the city’s southeastern edge, about 15 km from the Kremlin.
Sooty, black rain fell on the cars, according to local video.
Russia and Ukraine have once again exchanged the bodies of those killed in the four-year war, Ukrainian officials announced Thursday.
Ukraine received 522 bodies.
According to state news agencies, 33 bodies were handed over to the Russian side.
Russia has returned the remains of more than 20,000 Ukrainians since the beginning of 2025, while also receiving more than 600 of its own.
The Ukrainian army was unable to recover the bodies of its own soldiers as a result of the slow but steady advance of Russian forces.
Both sides keep the figures for their losses secret.
Estimates put Ukraine’s losses at 190,000 casualties, while the figure on the Russian side is stated to be more than 350,000.
The United Nations estimates the number of civilians killed through May this year was approximately 16,100.
Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
With AP, EFE and DPA
