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Ukrainian Drones Strike Moscow Oil Refinery, Causing Fires and Tank Damage
Multiple Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles struck targets in Moscow early on June 18, 2026, including the Gazprom-owned Kapotnya oil refinery. Russian air defenses intercepted many incoming weapons, but several reached the refinery and other sites, producing fires and structural damage.
Jun 18, 5:55 PM·1m read1 source
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Videos posted online showed multiple fireballs and plumes of black smoke rising from the facility, which supplies up to 40 percent of Moscow's petrol and about 50 percent of its diesel fuel. The attack was the second on the refinery in two days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the strikes were a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory, including damage to the Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv earlier in the week.
Damage at the Refinery Footage from the site showed the disc-shaped roof of one storage tank being thrown into the air. Open-source analysts attributed that specific detonation to an errant Russian surface-to-air missile rather than a Ukrainian weapon.
The refinery had already halted operations after the previous day's strike. Russian authorities reported that air defenses intercepted and destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said several drones reached the refinery and that the Sadovod shopping center in the southeastern part of the city was also damaged.
Traffic on Moscow's ring road near the refinery was halted, according to the interior ministry. Wildfire units were called to several spots in the Kapotnya district where fires broke out. Russian state media RIA Novosti described the overnight attack on energy facilities in Moscow as the biggest in two years.
