Ukraine has carried out the largest drone attack of the war on the Russian capital — and this time the damage is measured not only in fires but in halted production. The Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery in the capital's Kapotnya district has stopped processing crude oil after both of its primary distillation units caught fire in the overnight barrage of September 20, three industry sources told Reuters the following day. Repairs could take weeks.
The biggest barrage of the war
The attack came on the third and final day of Russia's parliamentary elections — the first since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Russia's defence ministry said air defences downed 1,110 Ukrainian drones across 19 regions plus occupied Crimea overnight, the largest overnight total reported this year, eclipsing the previous high of 822 in August. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin described an "unprecedented" assault, claiming more than 1,600 drones were aimed at the capital region over the past day, 450 of them directly at Moscow. Kyiv did not confirm any drone count.
Sobyanin linked the timing to the vote, saying on Telegram that the attack "was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections" and that "the adversary failed to achieve this." Ukraine never said the election was a target. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praising the operation, said only that Ukrainian long-range strikes had "a very significant impact in the Moscow region" and that the facilities hit were bringing in "billions of dollars that sustain the war machine."
Kapotnya in flames
The Ukrainian General Staff identified the main target as the Moscow Oil Refinery, one of the country's largest by volume with a processing capacity of about 245,000 barrels a day, located roughly 25 kilometres from the Kremlin. Its statement said the AVT-6 primary crude distillation unit, the integrated crude processing unit and the isomerisation unit were all hit, with large fires recorded at the site.
The follow-up reporting turned a spectacular raid into a strategic result. Reuters' industry sources said on September 21 that both primary crude distillation units caught fire after drones crashed onto the site — the AVT-6 unit alone accounts for 21,400 metric tons a day, 53 percent of the refinery's capacity, with the EURO+ combined unit making up the remaining 47 percent. Fuel produced at the Moscow refinery has not been offered for sale on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange since September 21. The plant processed 11.6 million tons of crude in 2024 — about 230,000 barrels a day — yielding 2.9 million tons of gasoline and 3.2 million tons of diesel. Losing weeks of that output bites directly into the capital region's fuel supply.
New weapons make their debut
Zelenskyy said the strike employed several domestically produced long-range weapons, naming FP-1 and RZ-100 drones alongside the Flamingo cruise missile and the Pelican ballistic missile. Reporting on his statement described the Pelican's involvement as its first publicly confirmed combat use — a milestone for Ukraine's homegrown missile programme, which only weeks ago was still in the testing phase. Precisely what role the Pelican played remains unclear, but its appearance over Moscow marks the moment Ukraine's own ballistics entered the fight.
The raid was not limited to the refinery. Ukraine's General Staff said a Russian logistics facility was also struck, and Moscow's four international airports temporarily imposed flight restrictions overnight before lifting them on Sunday morning.
The truce that wasn't
The barrage landed days after US President Donald Trump announced that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to stop striking each other's energy infrastructure — an agreement both sides have since continued to ignore. Russia kept hitting Ukrainian energy targets, and Ukraine kept burning Russian refineries. For all the diplomacy in Washington, the war's energy front is decided over Kapotnya, not at the negotiating table.
The human cost fell on the Moscow region's civilians as well. Regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said two people were killed and 20 injured — CNN reported at least three dead — while 400 residents, including 70 children, were evacuated from a 21-storey apartment block in the Ramenskoye district and a number of homes were damaged. Both sides say they do not target civilians.
Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has stopped being a series of pinpricks. A refinery that fed the capital's fuel supply and the Kremlin's war budget is now dark for weeks, struck on the night Russia voted. Moscow's air defences, concentrated around the capital, could not stop the largest drone wave of the war — and the weapons that got through included missiles Ukraine built itself.
Watch our latest video coverage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjMkkknHbM