Kyiv and Moscow, Sunday 20 September 2026
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian long range forces struck one of Russia’s key oil industry plants and a logistics site in the Moscow region during the night, describing the targets as assets worth billions of dollars that help sustain the war.
The official Defence of Ukraine account published the same account and listed the systems used as FP 1, RZ 100, MICH 2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen and Pelican. Zelensky thanked the Security Service of Ukraine, the Unmanned Systems Forces, the Special Operations Forces, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and the Foreign Intelligence Service for what he called accurate work.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its units hit the Gazprom Neft Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district of the capital. It said the AVT 6 primary distillation unit, a comprehensive oil processing unit and an isomerization unit were struck and that a large fire followed. The plant is one of Russia’s largest oil refining sites and supplies a substantial share of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel used in Moscow and the surrounding region.
Russia reports deadly mass drone attack on Moscow region, oil refinery amid parliamentary election
Smoke and flames rise over industrial plant in the Moscow area after overnight strikes, according to footage circulated by local and Ukrainian media.
Fire Point, the Ukrainian maker of the FP 1, said its drones also struck a warehouse complex run by Modern Warehouse Technologies in Sofyino in the Ramensky district. Monitoring channels posted images of a large fire at the logistics park. Russian regional officials said the Ramensky area suffered some of the heaviest effects of the night’s attacks.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said several drones reached the grounds of the Moscow Oil Refinery and that one struck a residential building in the city, with no deaths reported inside the capital. He said air defences had intercepted more than 1,600 unmanned aircraft since Saturday, including about 450 heading for Moscow, and called the wave unprecedented. He accused Kyiv of trying to disrupt the final day of parliamentary elections.
Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said two people were killed and six injured across the province. He reported fires at homes and at a warehouse and said hundreds of residents were moved from a tall apartment block in the Ramenskoye area. Flight limits were placed at airports serving the capital.
Zelensky said sanctions had also been applied to a facility in the Voronezh region. He argued that Moscow should end what he called a brutal war and choose peace rather than spend on layered rings of air defence at the expense of other regions. Steps to ease the conflict exist in energy and food security, he said, and what is required is political will. He thanked those who are expanding Ukraine’s long range reach and those who add pressure through sanctions
The Kapotnya refinery has been struck several times this year. Independent reporting earlier in the summer said earlier hits had already reduced output at a site that processed more than 11 million tonnes of crude a year. Ukraine has framed repeated attacks on refineries, depots and warehouses as an attempt to cut the fuel and logistics that keep Russian forces in the field. Moscow presents the same raids as terror against civilian life and as an effort to interfere in domestic politics.
Both sides say they do not aim at civilians. Russian officials said debris and stray impacts caused the deaths and injuries in the wider Moscow region. Ukrainian officials say the intended targets were industrial and logistics sites that feed the war.
The mix of systems named by Zelensky points to a coordinated package rather than a single type of aircraft. FP 1 drones built by Fire Point have been used in earlier deep strikes. Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Palianytsia and the other named types form part of a growing family of Ukrainian long range weapons developed to reach targets far from the front. Russia says most incoming aircraft are shot down. Ukrainian officials say enough still get through to set fire to high value plant.
Neither capital offered an independent damage survey by late morning. Geolocated video verified by several newsrooms showed a large blaze at the refining complex and a separate fire at the Sofyino warehouses. The scale of lost refining capacity and the time needed for repairs remain disputed, as they have after earlier raids on the same plant.
Zelensky closed with a call for political will to stop the fighting. Russian officials said voting would continue and that the attack had failed in its supposed political aim. The exchange leaves the same pattern that has defined this year: Ukrainian long range strikes on energy and logistics inside Russia, Russian claims of mass interceptions, and no sign yet of the deescalation both sides say they want.
By John James -International correspondent
