BBCUnited States
Goldstein: -9.0Tone: -100.0CAMEO 18
Moscow oil refinery attack brings Russia's war with Ukraine closer to home
There are moments when life in Moscow feels completely normal. Thursday morning wasn't one of them.
In the south-east of the city an oil refinery had been hit during a Ukrainian drone attack - even from a distance the sight was surreal.
Thick smoke billowing from the direction of the facility had turned the sky dark. Like a giant black shroud, it hung over the Moscow skyline.
As extraordinary and eye-catching this was, so was the reaction of people near the refinery.
Paying minimal attention to the huge clouds of smoke, an angler sat by the side of a pond, staring out across the water as he carried on fishing.
At the playground opposite, children were having fun on the swings.
Shoppers were heading to and from a supermarket, as if this was just another Thursday.
I realised then that my sense of what's normal in Moscow and what's not, needed updating.
For so long, the war on Ukraine felt very distant to people in the Russian capital. Many pretended it wasn't happening at all, but that's harder to do as the front line creeps closer to the city.
Over the past year-and-a-half, Muscovites have woken to news that army generals in Moscow have been assassinated, and drones have been targeting the capital.
In a sense, abnormal is already the new normal.
Thursday's attack was one of the largest aerial assaults on the Moscow region since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As well as damage to the oil refinery, shopping centres and residential buildings were hit, too. According to the governor of the Moscow region, an eight-year-old girl was killed in a fire caused by one of the drone strikes.
"I'm not totally surprised by what happened," says Slava, who lives in an apartment block opposite the oil refinery. "But I didn't expect such a big attack."
"I heard explosions and saw lots of smoke. It's the kind of thing you normally see in the movies. I saw it from my apartment window."
But another local resident, Nadezhda, saw nothing normal in what's happening.
"It took us four years to win World War Two, even though our soldiers had little food and water," she told me.
"Today we have all the resources we need. But this war goes on. I'm shocked."
How do the Russian authorities respond to people like Nadezhda, to Russians struggling to understand why the Kremlin's so-called "special military operation" is taking so long, and how it can be that the war has come to their city?
Russian officials regularly accuse the West of prolonging the war in Ukraine, blaming European leaders and Nato for supporting Kyiv.
But on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said nothing about the drone assault. The news bulletins on Russian TV channels barely mentioned it.
When Russian newspapers reported the story the following day, I detected a common thread in their coverage: a coordinated message, perhaps, for the domestic audience.
It can be summed up as this: "However bad it is for us, Ukraine's suffering more".
"Our attacks are doing far more damage to Ukraine than Ukraine is doing to us," declared the ultra-pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"Our strikes to demilitarise Ukraine are far more powerful and effective than Ukrainian attacks," wrote the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets.
The narrative was almost identical in the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta: "Our attacks on defence enterprises working for the Ukrainian army are much more powerful than those which Russians, unfortunately, are having to deal with."
"Our strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure linked to the military-industrial complex are far more effective and produce more results," commented business daily Kommersant.
When the Kremlin finally reacted, it had a similar message.
"You should look for more footage coming out of various cities in Ukraine," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Footage showing the results of strikes carried out by our armed forces is impressive. These strikes will continue."
There is no sign that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian cities have given Putin pause for thought. From his recent speeches and statements, the Kremlin leader seems determined to continue Russia's assault on Ukraine, confident that in this war of attrition his country will prevail.
But there are signs that long-range Ukrainian strikes – particularly on Russian oil facilities – are increasing the pressure on the Russian economy. Petrol shortages and rationing have been reported in some parts of the country, and prices have been rising at the pumps.
In what has become the new normal, Moscow is expecting more drone strikes.
"The Ukrainian attack on the Moscow region on 18 June won't be the last attack, or even one of the last," predicted Moskovsky Komsomolets.
"There's nothing we can do about this," one woman told me last Thursday as she looked up at the clouds of smoke.
"It's our government that must decide what to do. All we can do is watch."
Open article →BBCUnited States
Goldstein: -9.0Tone: -100.0CAMEO 18
Moscow residents complain of black rain after largest Ukrainian attack hits oil refinery
Specks of black oil have rained down on part of Moscow after a refinery was hit during the largest Ukrainian attack since the start of the full-scale war, with close to 200 drones fired towards the Russian capital.
Columns of thick smoke billowed high into the sky and 17 people were wounded in the Moscow region, according to local governor Andrei Vorobyov.
Residents in the south-east of Moscow region told the BBC that a fine drizzle had left "unpleasant black spots" on their clothes.
Moscow authorities denied that any "oil rain" had been falling.
However, the city's official Telegram channel warned residents of the affected district to keep their windows closed and said families with children, elderly people and asthmatics should urgently leave the area.
Almost 1,000 drones and four Ukrainian cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed across the country in 24 hours, Russia's defence ministry was quoted as saying. An oil depot was struck in the southern Rostov region, where one person was killed.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said the drone strike was an answer to last week's Russian attack on Kyiv, which set ablaze a major religious landmark, the Pechersk Lavra monastery.
"We don't want this war and have never wanted it," Zelensky said. "But if Ukraine burns, your Moscow will burn too."
In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said strikes on Ukraine would be delivered "on a mass scale", adding he had been "convinced for a long time that words are not enough".
Fires broke out as the Kapotnya refinery in south-east Moscow was hit for the third time in a month and the second time this week, colouring the sky black with smoke. Several clips show the particularly dramatic moment the top of a large silo was blown off by a huge explosion, sending the roof of the oil storage tank flying dozens of metres into the air.
A nearby shopping centre also caught fire, reportedly after drone debris fell on the building. In a video verified by the BBC, a drone can be seen crashing into the upper floors of a high-rise building, with glass and debris raining down its facade and into the courtyard beneath.
In another verified video, a thick, dark, oily sheen could be seen coating the tarmac of a car park, while the ground beneath parked vehicles remains clear.
"As soon as I stepped out of my apartment building, there was this fine, light drizzle," one local woman told the BBC.
She noticed "unpleasant black spots" on her clothes and her friend's jacket, too, "ended up covered in black specks," she added. "We'll now be keeping an eye on whether our hair starts falling out because of petroleum products."
Moscow's four airports were temporarily shut and more than 500 flights were cancelled or delayed.
Although local authorities across Russia have banned publication of images of the aftermath of drone strikes, dozens of videos were posted on social media showing drones flying across the sky in broad daylight and explosions over industrial areas on the outskirts of Moscow.
It has been a regular Ukrainian tactic to launch a large number of reconnaissance decoy drones to map out the density of air defences and vulnerable areas, before the main air strikes begin.
Four and a half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war of attrition on the front line in Ukraine grinds on, out of sight for many in Russia. Kyiv's long-range strikes on targets across Russia as well as Moscow and St Petersburg are an indication of Zelensky's aim of "bringing the war home" to ordinary Russians.
A man who lives near the refinery that was hit told the BBC he was woken up when his building started "shaking" at dawn and that in the morning he smelled burning and could not breathe.
"It's all very frightening," he said. "Before, I wasn't so scared, but now it is almost a panic."
Drone attacks on Moscow - about 500km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border - have become more frequent as Kyiv has developed its long-range capabilities. Ukraine's first successful drone strikes reached the Russian capital in spring 2023, although they were sporadic and rarely involved more than a handful of drones.
Since then, extensive air defences have been set up around Moscow - but the number of drones used by Ukraine in its attacks has also multiplied and some have penetrated those defences.
No air defence system can ensure total protection against massive attacks of high-tech drones. The hit rate of those that do get through is extremely low and fraught with the risk of anti-missile debris crashing to the ground.
But despite the known difficulties in halting such large-scale attacks, Thursday's drone barrage is bound to raise questions about the effectiveness of air defence systems surrounding key infrastructure in Moscow.
For its part, Russia launched more than 200 drones and multiple ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv said.
Vladimir Putin, who is hosting southeast Asian leaders for a summit in the central city of Kazan, has not commented on the large-scale attack on the Russian capital.
Writing on X, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said: "One of the most popular questions asked by Muscovites this morning is 'What is going on?'"
"I can answer. Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people," Sybiha wrote.
"Now that you know what's going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it."
Additional reporting by Ilya Abishev, BBC Russian and BBC Verify's Richard Irvine-Brown and Paul Brown
Correction 19 June 2026: This article has been updated to amend the original subheading of the story to reflect the fact that nearly 200 drones were launched towards Moscow, and not that they had struck the south-east of Moscow.
Open article →NBCUnited States
Goldstein: -10.0Tone: -100.0CAMEO 20
Ukraine launches drone attacks on major Moscow oil refinery
00:41
UP NEXT
Fire engulfs centuries-old Ukrainian monastery after deadly strikes
00:49
Russian-occupied Crimea suffers fuel shortages after Ukrainian attacks
01:15
Putin rejects Zelenskyy's invitation to meet face-to-face
01:09
Putin rebuffs Zelenskyy letter and lays out maximalist goals at St. Petersburg summit
04:20
‘I see no point in meeting’: Putin dismisses Zelenskyy’s offer of talks
01:21
New video shows apparent Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets in St. Petersburg
01:52
Huge attack on Ukraine leaves more than 20 dead
01:02
Russia targets Kyiv with massive overnight attack
01:49
Russian drone intended for Ukraine injures two people in Romania
00:46
Putin Says He Believes Ukraine War is 'Coming to an End'
00:24
Ukraine accuses Russia of violating Kyiv-initiated ceasefire
00:56
Russian oil depot catches fire after Ukrainian drone strike
00:46
Trump says he spoke to Putin about Ukraine and Iran during phone call
01:34
North Korea opens memorial for soldiers who fought in Ukraine war
00:39
Russia launches massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine
00:46
Ukrainian president says robots captured territory from Russian soldiers
03:03
Zelenskyy: Russia Took Images of US Air Base Before Iran Strike
03:08
Russia fires nearly a thousand drones against Ukraine
04:46
Video shows Russian drone explosion in Lviv
00:48
Ukraine launches drone attacks on major Moscow oil refinery
00:41
Copied
Waves of Ukrainian drones hit a major oil refinery in Moscow for the second time in a week, sending thick clouds of black smoke rising over the city. Ukraine cast the attacks as revenge or strikes on a historic monastery that drew global condemnation.June 18, 2026
Open article →