A large-scale Ukrainian drone strike targeted Moscow Oblast overnight into Saturday, reportedly setting ablaze an oil depot and a major commercial fulfillment center east of the Russian capital. Local residents captured photos and videos showing thick columns of black smoke rising from an oil depot in the city of Noginsk, located roughly 50 kilometers east of the Kremlin, with the plumes visible from well within Moscow’s city limits. Later in the morning, a secondary massive fire broke out at a fulfillment center for the major Russian online retailer Wildberries in the neighboring city of Elektrostal.
Amid the extensive overnight bombardment, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin claimed that Russian air defenses faced an unprecedented wave of over 370 Ukrainian drones launched toward the capital region, asserting that 64 of the incoming aircraft were shot down on their approach. The absolute scale of the physical damage remains unconfirmed, and Ukraine’s military has not yet officially commented on the operation. The strike on the Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal marked the second facility belonging to the online retailer hit during the night, following a separate drone attack on a fulfillment center in Russia’s Tambov Oblast.
This latest operation comes exactly one month after a major Ukrainian strike heavily damaged the Moscow Oil Refinery on June 18, which energy analysts indicate has severely aggravated Russia’s domestic fuel supply crisis. Ukraine has continually intensified its deep-strike campaign against industrial, military, and energy infrastructure inside Russia to disrupt the Kremlin’s wartime fuel logistics and economic funding. In response to the persistent aerial threat, Russian authorities have begun reinforcing defenses in the capital region, recently deploying new Pantsir air defense systems directly onto the rooftops of civilian buildings in Moscow.
