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While Moscow’s Refinery Continues to Burn, Russia Vows More Massive Strikes on Ukraine
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Russia will continue carrying out regular, large-scale strikes against Ukraine on the direct orders of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated to Russian media on June 18.
Lavrov framed the campaign as the execution of a standing order from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in his role as Supreme Commander-in-Chief, with the Russian military tasked with carrying it out indefinitely.
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Lavrov’s remarks followed earlier Russian Foreign Ministry statements that Moscow had begun “systematic strikes” on facilities in Kyiv, which it claims are used by Ukraine’s Armed Forces and on decision-making centers.
Lavrov argued that diplomatic language alone had run its course. "I have long been convinced that words are not enough," he stated. He said Putin had previously announced that Russia would carry out regular large-scale strikes after what he described as another Ukrainian attack, targeting Ukraine’s military capabilities.
Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister since 2004 and among the longest-serving figures in Putin's government, has increasingly used official appearances to justify the strike campaign in military terms.
Moscow routinely casts its long-range attacks as directed at Ukrainian defense capacity, even as the strikes have repeatedly hit residential districts, power generation, and civilian infrastructure across the country.
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The vow followed a fresh wave of Ukrainian long-range strikes deep inside Russia. In the early hours of June 18, dozens of drones targeted Moscow and the surrounding region, with several reaching the Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district, about 15 kilometers southeast of the Kremlin.
Ukraine's Western partners have cast those cross-border operations as legitimate. A day earlier, on June 17, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte defended Ukraine's right to strike military targets inside Russia as an act of self-defense, speaking in Brussels ahead of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
He rejected the notion that Kyiv should ease military pressure on Moscow to facilitate peace talks, framing it as a view shared across the alliance.
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-29a1a43aba23f9bb779a1ac8b98d2121.jpeg "Photo of Illia Kabachynskyi")
-0404e2042129dae84396fbb11fa3b5cd.png "Drone footage shows destroyed and abandoned Russian all-terrain vehicles on the battlefield following a failed daylight assault near the settlement of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (Source: 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade)")
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
