Ukraine Brings the War Back to Moscow
Ukraine launched one of its most dramatic long-range strikes of the war, hitting a Moscow oil refinery and disrupting air traffic as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Russia that “if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn.”
The war’s center of gravity shifted sharply toward Russia’s capital after Ukrainian drones struck the Moscow oil refinery for the second time in a week, sending smoke over the city and forcing flight disruptions at major airports. Russian officials said hundreds of drones were intercepted, but the visible damage underlined Ukraine’s growing ability to reach strategic infrastructure far from the front.
Zelenskiy cast the strikes as retaliation for Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine, including a deadly assault that damaged the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. The message to Moscow was blunt: continued strikes on Ukrainian cities will bring consequences closer to the Kremlin, while Kyiv presses allies in Brussels for more air defences and tougher sanctions on Russia’s energy and defence sectors.
