Ukrainian drone strikes hit Moscow refinery again as Zelensky meets Trump at G7 summit
Russian air defenses said they downed dozens of drones targeting Moscow, but several struck the city's main oil refinery for the second time in three days
Moscow was hit with a massive drone attack Thursday morning, with explosions and smoke across the city. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Russian air defenses destroyed 52 drones bound for the capital, but that "several drones managed to reach” the Moscow Oil Refinery. The strike sparked a major fire there for the second time in three days. Sobyanin also reported "minor damage" to a shopping center and no casualties.
Temporary flight restrictions were imposed at three Moscow airports.
The refinery supplies about 40 percent of Moscow's fuel market and most of the region's gasoline. A June 16 strike on the same refinery, which President Volodymyr Zelensky called "a just response to Russian strikes," reportedly halted operations there. That’s according to Russian industry sources cited by Reuters.
According to reports, a separate Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil depot in Gukovo, in Russia's Rostov Oblast near the Ukrainian border. Rostov Oblast Governor Yury Slyusar said the strike killed one person and injured two others.
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The strikes came as Zelensky held a previously unannounced 30-minute meeting with President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G7 summit. This was Trump and Zelensky’s first encounter in over four months. Zelensky showed Trump photographs of damage to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra from a recent Russian strike.
The Kyiv Independent, Trump "appeared moved" by the images, according to a source familiar with the matter. Additionally, Zelensky said G7 partners agreed to bolster Ukraine's air defenses, telling reporters, "We talked about both the systems and the missiles."
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After the meeting, Trump told reporters, "Russia should make a deal. Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people. So has Ukraine." He also said the war "has no impact on us" since the US is "thousands of miles away," though he said sanctions on Russian oil could return "soon."
Zelensky's also reaffirmed his desire for direct talks with Putin, but the Russian president has so far rejected meeting Zelensky outside Moscow.