Russia will continue carrying out regular mass strikes against targets in Ukraine in response to Ukrainian attacks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced, according to Russian state media. He specified that the targets will be those on which the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ combat capability directly depends.
“I believe all the right words have been said, but I have long been convinced that words are not enough,” Lavrov stated.
The foreign minister also invoked a declaration previously made by President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin said Russia would carry out regular mass strikes against targets directly linked to the Ukrainian military’s fighting capacity.
The Ukrainian Attack That Prompted Lavrov’s Warning
Lavrov’s remarks came in direct response to a large-scale Ukrainian drone assault, apparently combined with missile strikes, targeting Moscow and other Russian regions. The most striking blow landed on an oil refinery in Moscow, triggering an explosion so powerful that the massive disc-shaped lid of a fuel storage tank was sent flying into the air. Ukrainian drones, navigating past Russian air defenses, struck the same southeast Moscow refinery for the second time within three days, setting off a large fire accompanied by thick clouds of black smoke.
Scores of Ukrainian drones bore down on Moscow, hitting the Russian capital’s oil refinery for the second time this week and launching the giant disc-shaped lid of an oil storage tank into the sky like a frisbee https://t.co/Suxm8wRGHY pic.twitter.com/ceqU09i8ar
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 18, 2026
The strikes are part of a broader Ukrainian campaign aimed at degrading Russia’s oil industry, whose revenues fund the war effort. But by hitting critical infrastructure located inside Moscow’s ring road, just 16 kilometers from the Kremlin, and appearing to do so largely unimpeded, Ukraine is also sending a message directly to ordinary Russian citizens.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha addressed Russians directly on social media: “One of the most common questions Muscovites were asking this morning was ‘what is going on?’ I can answer. Your country started an aggressive war against us. For years, it has been killing our people. Now that you know what is happening, ask Putin when he plans to end the war.”
Kyiv maintains that its deep-strike campaign inside Russian territory demonstrates that it is turning the tide of the conflict. President Volodymyr Zelensky made precisely that case to US President Donald Trump and other G7 leaders at this week’s summit in France.
