Ukraine strikes Moscow region with drones and missiles, targeting oil and logistics facilities, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine carried out a large-scale overnight strike on Moscow and the surrounding region using multiple types of domestically produced drones and missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sept. 20, as Russian officials reported damage to an oil refinery, warehouses and residential buildings.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces struck “one of the key enterprises of Russia’s oil industry” and a logistics facility in the Moscow region, describing the targets as sources of billions of dollars supporting Russia’s war effort.
The attack involved FP-1, RZ-100 and MICH-2000 drones, as well as Palyanytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Sichen and Pelican systems and Flamingo missiles, according to the president.
The operation involved Ukraine’s Security Service, Unmanned Systems Forces, Special Operations Forces, military intelligence and Foreign Intelligence Service, Zelenskyy said. He also reported a separate strike on an industrial facility in Russia’s Voronezh region.
Russian officials earlier reported a massive overnight drone attack on Moscow and Moscow Oblast.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described it as the largest drone attack on the Russian capital since the start of the war. He said a facility at the Moscow Oil Refinery had been damaged.
Moscow Oblast Governor Andrei Vorobyov claimed Russian air defenses had intercepted 249 drones across 17 municipalities between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Russian authorities also reported damage to several residential buildings. A 44-year-old woman was killed when a drone struck an apartment building in the village of Sofyino, according to Vorobyov, while five other people were injured. Another man was reported killed after a private home caught fire in the Orekhovo-Zuyevo district.
Around 400 residents were evacuated from a 21-story apartment building in the Ramenskoye district after its roof caught fire, Russian officials said.
Ukrainian defense company Fire Point separately said its FP-1 drones had destroyed a warehouse complex belonging to Sovremennye Skladskie Tekhnologii in the Moscow region.
Zelenskyy said Moscow should end its war rather than build additional layers of air defenses around the Russian capital.
“Moscow should not be building layered rings of air defense at the expense of other regions, but should end its brutal war and choose peace,” he said.
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