A Ukrainian drone strike at the Moscow oil refineries blew the lid off a fuel storage facility, lifting it intact and leaving it looking like a "flying saucer," according to unverified reports. The extent of damage and casualties are not yet reported.
On Thursday at 10:31 Jerusalem time, reports emerged that a Ukrainian drone strike on the Moscow oil refineries blew the lid off a fuel storage facility, lifting it intact and leaving it resembling a "flying saucer." The claim is unverified, with no details on casualties or total damage. This development follows a week of repeated strikes on Moscow's refinery infrastructure: on Tuesday Jun 16 at 10:19 Jerusalem, initial reports of a morning drone attack were followed within hours by a larger wave that ignited a massive fire at the same facility, as confirmed by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who reported damage but no casualties.
By Tuesday afternoon, The Zioneer reported that a first wave of drone strikes had halted large sections of the refinery, with an Arabic-language source describing a powerful explosion. That same day, additional strikes hit the refinery for a second time that week, and another attack days later — on a facility already hit earlier — prompted Russia to begin importing fuel from Asian countries, as reported by The Zioneer. Earlier antecedents include a strike on a fuel storage facility in Yaroslavl on Jun 14 and the temporary shutdown of Moscow's main refinery on Jun 16.
Attributed background, as previously covered by The Zioneer, situates the current strikes within a broader Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure in June, including a reported strike on a Samara refinery on Jun 10 and a fire at a refinery in southwestern Russia after debris from intercepted drones ignited a blaze on Jun 11.
It remains unclear how much fuel was stored at the affected tank, whether operations at the Moscow refinery complex have been further disrupted, and what the total casualty or damage toll from the latest strike is.
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