Oil tank blows up like a toy—Zelenskyy’s attack on Moscow as a lesson for Putin

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• Oil tank lid flies off: Footage shows just how intense today’s drone attack on the Moscow refinery was.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy justifies the attack: Kyiv aims to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table with these strikes.
• Residential buildings in the Moscow suburbs were apparently also hit during the attack—reportedly leaving 16 people injured.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has portrayed a major attack on Moscow as a means of pressure to negotiate an end to the war.

He explained today that the large-scale drone operation against the Russian capital is part of efforts to force Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. The time has come to end the war, he said. Russia must take the necessary diplomatic steps.

Refinery Ablaze

Ukraine Strikes at Moscow's Fuel Heart

“This is a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and towns,” Zelenskyy stated on the platform X, “and another important result of our warriors’ efforts against facilities that keep Russia’s war machine running.”

In a voice message to a group chat with journalists, he added: “If Putin does not want to end this war and intends to continue it, we will not sit idly by—we will respond.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also wrote on X that one of the most common questions Moscow residents were asking this morning was: “What’s going on?”

He could answer that: “Your country has launched a war of aggression against ours. It has been killing our people for years. Now that you know what’s going on, ask Putin when he intends to end it.”

Black plumes of smoke over Moscow

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin had previously announced an attack on one of the country’s largest oil refineries on the outskirts of Moscow.

Footage published in Russian media showed massive fires at the facility, which is located only about 15 kilometers from the Kremlin. Plumes of black smoke rose over the city.

The refinery on the outskirts of Moscow had already been the target of a Ukrainian attack two days earlier, though Russian authorities stated at the time that a fire resulting from that attack had been quickly extinguished.

Drones Also Strike Russian Residential Buildings

The Russian Ministry of Transport announced that flights from four Moscow airports had been suspended. The Ministry of Defense reported that 555 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over various regions of the country.

Nearly 200 were intercepted as they approached Moscow alone. In the city of Zhukovsky, in the Moscow region, a drone struck a residential building, which was subsequently evacuated, according to Governor Andrei Vorobyov.

Elsewhere, drone debris fell on private homes, a car, a gym, an unspecified industrial facility, and a large shopping center, whose roof caught fire, Vorobyov said. Sixteen people were injured, including two children.

Putin Snubbed Again During a Summit

Putin was in Kazan today, about 700 kilometers east of Moscow, where he received representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). His adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the two-day summit, which began yesterday, was intended to explore expanding Russia’s “strategic partnership” with the ASEAN nations.

In early June, Kyiv had already snubbed Putin by launching an attack on his hometown of St. Petersburg while he was holding his International Economic Forum there. The Kremlin leader declined a subsequent invitation to talks from Zelenskyy in a letter addressed directly to him, which contained mocking remarks about Putin’s age.

Problems behind the front line

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Zelenskyy is likely to feel a fresh boost from the G7 summit. On Wednesday, he announced that his country had received important commitments there for further support in its defensive struggle against Russia.

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The host, French President Emmanuel Macron, said the summit had been very important for Ukraine. He added that the U.S. was also on board regarding Ukraine, which was very important.