Ukrainian drones target Moscow again, mayor says, as Kyiv claims oil refinery strike
LONDON -- Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow again in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the city's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, marking the fourth consecutive day of Ukrainian long-range attacks on the Russian capital.
Sobyanin said in posts to Telegram that at least 15 Ukrainian drones were intercepted en route to the capital overnight, with no damage or casualties reported. Emergency responders were dispatched to sites where drones crashed or debris fell, Sobyanin said.
Russia's federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced on Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at two of the capital's four international airports -- Vnukovo Airport to the southwest of Moscow and Zhukovsky Airport to the southeast of the city.
The drones targeting Moscow were among at least 330 Ukrainian drones reported to be shot down by Russia's Defense Ministry on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
Rosaviatsiya said that flight restrictions were also introduced at airports in the cities of Sochi and Gelendzhik on Russia's Black Sea coast, plus in the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia. All three cities are in the Krasnodar Krai region.
Regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said in a post to Telegram that a "drone hazard" warning was in effect for the entire territory.
Drone debris, Kondratyev said, hit an apartment building in the city of Krasnodar resulting in a fire and injuring two people. Several homes in the district of Seversky, to the southeast of Krasnodar, were also damaged by a drone attack with one person injured, Kondratyev said.
But Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram that a major oil refinery in the region was also targeted in the overnight attack.
The Afipsky Refinery, Kovalenko said, "has been damaged and a fire broke out on its premises." The facility sits just south of Krasnodar and has already been attacked twice by Ukrainian drones -- first in February 2025 and again in March 2026.
Russia continued its own long-range strikes into Ukraine overnight into Thursday morning. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 221 drones in its latest barrage, of which 195 drones were intercepted or otherwise suppressed.
Both missiles and 21 drones impacted across nine locations, the air force said.
