Ukrainian drones struck the Moscow oil refinery overnight for the second time in a week, slipping through one of the largest air-defense engagements Russia has reported over the capital and reinforcing intelligence assessments that Moscow is burning through interceptor missiles faster than it can replace them.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday its air defenses shot down 555 Ukrainian drones, with almost 200 intercepted near the capital. "Air defence forces continue to repel a massive attack. Several drones managed to reach the Moscow oil refinery," Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, adding that a shopping center sustained minor damage. Sheremetyevo, Moscow's busiest airport, suspended flights and evacuated travelers, some sheltering in the parking garage.
What was hit
The refinery supplies roughly 40 percent of the capital's petrol and other oil products, Al Jazeera correspondent Yulia Shapovalova reported from Kazan, calling it a "strategically important enterprise." A Tuesday strike on the same facility halted operations, according to Reuters, and the plant was still burning Thursday. A high-rise residential building, an industrial site and several private homes in the surrounding region were also damaged.
The interceptor math
Three Ukrainian officials told CBS News this week that Russia is running short of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, the Soviet-era interceptor that has long anchored Russia's defenses against cruise and ballistic threats. Russia has repurposed S-300s for offensive strikes against Ukraine, reconfiguring their trajectories to act as surface-to-surface missiles, and is expending interceptors to swat down newer, faster Ukrainian drones, some with jet engines.
Rob Lee, a Russian military expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CBS News that Ukraine has compounded the pressure by hunting the launchers. "In the last few months, Ukraine has destroyed or targeted a large number of air defense systems in the occupied areas — in Crimea, in Dniester, Luhansk, and elsewhere," Lee said. "Many of Russia's air defense missiles are being used up very rapidly, at a kind of unsustainable rate, because Ukraine can produce more deep strike drones than Russia can, in some cases, produce air defense missiles."
One Ukrainian official told CBS News that Russia lacks key components — guidance seekers and control modules — to rebuild interceptor stocks, and that sanctions have made the parts hard to source from Western or Chinese suppliers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who met Group of Seven leaders in France this week, framed the strike as leverage. "This time, the Moscow region felt the reach of Ukraine's long-range capabilities," Zelenskyy said. "Russia must be forced to end its war against our people, and Ukraine's long-range weapons are one of the important components of such pressure."
The other side
Thursday's account comes only from Western and Ukrainian-aligned reporting and from Russia's Defense Ministry through the wires. Independent Russian military analysts and Moscow's broader framing — including any dispute over the 555 figure or the seriousness of the interceptor shortage — are not directly represented. Kyiv has air-defense problems of its own: Ukrainian officials have warned this year of a shortage of American PAC-3 interceptors, the most reliable shield against Russian ballistic missiles.
The refinery's return to service will be the near-term tell. Tuesday's strike halted operations; a second hit roughly 48 hours later will test how quickly Russia can patch a facility that feeds 40 percent of the capital's pumps.