Russia threatens ‘co-ordinated strikes’ on Ukraine after major drone attack on Moscow refinery

Russia will carry out “massive co-ordinated strikes on a regular basis” against Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says after a major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow.

Ukrainian forces struck a major Moscow oil refinery on Thursday for a second time in a week, sending huge plumes of black smoke over the capital and disrupting hundreds of flights at its airports in one of its biggest drone attacks, officials said.

The Ukrainian attacks left 17 people injured and damaged civilian infrastructure in the capital, local officials said.

The attack by dozens of drones came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had held “an important co-ordination call” with the presidents of the United States and France and had won key pledges of further support from this week’s G7 summit.

“If Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too,” Mr Zelensky said, 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, time to end this war.”

Mr Putin on Thursday was in Kazan, 700km east of Moscow, hosting leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations as Russia seeks to bolster business and other ties with the regional bloc.

Russia’s state-controlled TV channels only briefly mentioned the attack on Moscow.

Pro-Kremlin newspapers reported it, with some praising the performance of air defences while noting that the strike highlighted the need to further strengthen the defensive shield around the capital.

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, warned that Russia would respond by ramping up its strikes.

“Their action will lead to our counteraction and launching harsher blows, with more powerful weapons,” Mr Volodin said in televised remarks.

Thick, black smoke and occasional flames spewed from the Moscow Oil Refinery amid its red-and-white smokestacks on the southeastern edge of the city, about 15km from the Kremlin.

Sooty, black rain fell on cars, according to local video.

Russia and Ukraine again exchanged bodies of the fallen in their four-year war, Ukrainian authorities announced on Thursday.

Ukraine received 522 bodies.

The Russian side received 33 bodies, according to state news agencies.

Russia has returned the remains of more than 20,000 Ukrainians since the beginning of 2025 while receiving more than 600 of its own.

The Ukrainian army has been 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 on their losses secret.

Estimates put Ukrainian losses at 190,000 fallen and missing while the figure on the Russian side is put at more than 350,000.

The United Nations has estimated the number of civilians killed by May this year at about 16,100.

Ukraine has been warding off a Russian full-scale invasion since February 2022.

with AP, EFE and DPA