After Moscow’s Explosive Night, Russians Ask “What’s Going On?” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Has the Answer

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha offered an answer to the question many in Moscow were asking on the morning of June 18—“What is going on?”—reminding Russians that their country started the war in the first place.

He made the remarks on X hours after Ukrainian drones struck a Moscow oil refinery overnight.

Sybiha was addressing Russian citizens, who for once were experiencing the war in their own city rather than on state news. His message was that they should take the question to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

"Your country started a war of aggression against ours. For years, it has been killing our people," Sybiha wrote. "Now that you know what's going on, ask Putin when he is planning to end it."

Overnight on June 18, Ukrainian drones struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district, about 15 kilometers southeast of the Kremlin. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses had downed 992 drones over the previous 24 hours, together with four long-range "Flamingo" cruise missiles, ten guided aerial bombs, and three HIMARS rockets.

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Despite Russia's attempt to intercept the attack, dozens of drones still reached Moscow and the surrounding region, several of them breaking through to the refinery.

Such breaches are the product of a sustained campaign against Russian air defenses. In April alone, more than 250 air defense units were reported destroyed, with monthly losses of up to 300 in February and March. A parallel campaign against the oil sector struck ten major Russian refineries in May, six of them suspending operations, opening deeper corridors into Russia's rear.

Days before this latest attack, on June 16, Ukrainian long-range drones breached several of Moscow's concentric air-defense belts to strike the same refinery, in an operation coordinated by the Unmanned Systems Forces together with the Special Operations Forces, military intelligence, and the Security Service of Ukraine. Russia has responded by stacking ever more hardware around the city—including a new division that was stood up in 2025 with its newest S-500 system —yet the drones keep arriving.

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