What happened

Several Ukrainian drones reached the Moscow oil refinery in the Kapotnya district during a mass overnight attack on 19–20 September, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from the refinery, while Associated Press reported that the mayor confirmed damage at the site. Ukraine's General Staff subsequently said the AVT-6 primary crude-distillation unit, the KUPN integrated processing complex and an isomerisation unit were damaged; that equipment-level assessment has not been independently verified. On 21 September, three industry sources told Reuters that both of the refinery's primary crude-distillation units had caught fire, crude processing had halted and repairs could take several weeks. Gazprom Neft did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, so the shutdown assessment remains attributed to those industry sources. Sobyanin claimed Russian defences intercepted more than 1,600 drones across all defensive lines during the wider barrage, including about 450 approaching Moscow, and described it as the largest drone attack on the capital to date; these figures are official Russian claims and were not independently verified. Fire Point separately claimed FP-1 drones destroyed commercial warehouses operated by Modern Warehouse Technologies at Sofyino in Moscow Oblast. That logistics-site strike is context for the same attack wave and is not included in the refinery's damage assessment. The refinery processed approximately 230,000 barrels per day in 2024 and supplies about 40% of Moscow's fuel market. Three people were reported killed and others wounded elsewhere in the Moscow region, but no casualties were reported at the refinery.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.