I just saw some videos of a drone blowing up an oil refinery in Moscow and i do not follow the war closely.

How concerning is that they are able to hit Moscow?

Are the attacks being overplayed by western media?

BTW, also please tell me if this is too lazy of a post lol

  • Commiejones@lemmygrad.ml
    10·
    2 days ago

    Russia does more to Kiev in a single strike than ukraine has done to Moscow in the entire war. Explosions in Moscow aren’t going to stop the front line from moving forward. Its a media stunt.

  • SmallBear@lemmygrad.ml
    36·
    3 days ago

    I’m in Russia currently (though granted I’m in Kazan right now and not Moscow) and I have to say uh… It was barely a blip in Russian news tbh. It really doesn’t seem to have been a big deal over here, at least as far as I can tell. Certainly nobody seems too worried.

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlM
    461·
    3 days ago

    It’s absolutely a media offensive. These attacks aren’t able to do systemic damage, their reap purpose is to produce impressive looking videos and pictures that can be used to convince the public that the war is going great. This was perfectly timed for the G7 summit so all the imbeciles attending it could pat one another on the back and justify committing more resources to the war.

    What you have to look at are the actual numbers, and this kind of gives the game away. Turns out that Russian energy exports are at record high levels. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-16/russia-s-oil-exports-near-record-pace-as-ukraine-s-drones-target-its-refineries

    It’s also worth noting that refineries are huge, and a few drones simply can’t do enough structural damage to take them out of operation for any significant amount of time. Usually, things are back to working within a few days which is how long it takes to repair after these pinprick attacks. But if a drone manages to hit a fuel storage tank you get a nice big explosion with a lot of black smoke, and then you can plaster it all over the media saying how Russian energy industry is on its knees.

    Another obvious thing is that Russia is hitting Ukraine with far larger drone and missile attacks on weekly basis. So, if Ukraine is still fighting, it shows that these sorts of attacks can’t really change the course of the war. This is the same thing the US discovered in Iran incidentally.

    The real concern here is that these attacks are creating a lot of public anger in Russia, and people are increasingly wondering why Putin is fighting with kid gloves on, and why the west is allowed to hit Moscow while Russia doesn’t retaliate. Everybody understands that the war is between NATO and Russia with Ukraine being a western proxy. These drones are produced in the west, they’re guided by western satellites, and the west provides all the logistics. In other words, Western countries are direct participants in the conflict.

    And it’s going to be harder and harder to defend having a policy of not retaliating especially given that elections are coming up. There is a growing hard line faction in Russia that wants to retaliate directly against the west. Karaganov has been openly advocating for using limited nuclear strikes against Europe, and while he was in a minority before, his position is starting to be seen as rational. The argument is that Russia needs to reestablish nuclear deterrence and to remind the west that it is a nuclear power, and is willing to use their nuclear deterrent if pushed too far. This is by far the most concerning outcome of all this.

    • Sanya@lemmygrad.ml
      20·
      3 days ago

      Karaganov has been openly advocating for using limited nuclear strikes against Europe, and while he was in a minority before, his position is starting to be seen as rational.

      Last year in August 2025 Russia also also abrogated their one-sided moratorium regarding the intermediate-range deployment of nuclear-capable missiles, after no one else agreed to join it. I swear NATO will bring us all to our graves, if things keep developing like this.

    • durduramayacaklar@lemmygrad.ml
      19·
      3 days ago

      We were discussing does NATO’s enlargement to the East trigger a counter war by Russia in 2010’s and now we’re discussing the nuclear attacks…

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      22·
      3 days ago

      This was perfectly timed for the G7 summit so all the imbeciles attending it could pat one another on the back and justify committing more resources to the war.

      And Zelensky again demanded more money there, i guess the recent 90 billion from EU is already spent, i mean just how many golden toilets you can get for measly 90 billion?

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlM
        21·
        3 days ago

        In a way I kind of wonder if Russia isn’t keeping the war going to fuck the EU over economically. I think the drain on resources the war is causing for Europe is far more consequential than what’s happening on the front. Now that the US is largely checked out in terms of material support, the burden is entirely on Europe.

    • demeritum@lemmygrad.ml
      10·
      3 days ago

      I wonder if they would nuke Kiev or more western targets.

      I could definitely see the US ditching Europe and basically telling them to suck it.

  • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
    22·
    3 days ago

    Read the article linked in this post: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11956204

    In short, not very impactful for the overall production since drone payloads are too small to cause lasting damage to something as big as a refinery, and certainly not at all impactful to the actual war being fought on the front line (except for that it drives investment and innovation on the Russian side into drone defenses).

    The fire may look impressive for photos and videos in Kiev’s media propaganda effort but the damage is localized and the pattern so far has been that Russia has been able to repair the affected objects within a very short time. Annoying and perhaps embarrassing for the Russians and a short term PR victory for Kiev, but not substantial outside of that PR aspect.

    Also, right now it’s not something that can be repeated regularly (Ukraine tried two more waves in the last few days and apparently those attempts failed completely) especially as the Russians learn and adapt, and besides if wars were able to be won with drone strikes on infrastructure then Russia would have won the war a hundred times over already because it regularly inflicts far more damage back on Ukraine.

  • Maeve @lemmygrad.ml
    15·
    3 days ago

    Thank you for asking, I also want to know. Also the Ukraine is now saying Russia are kidnapping men off the streets for conscript.

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      19·
      3 days ago

      Well, on the one hand we have hundreds of videos from Ukraine showing the Kiev regime’s thugs doing this on an almost daily basis, and no one is even trying to deny it, everyone knows it’s happening. Ukrainians now regularly fight back against recruiters to save people from abduction and sometimes even torch their vehicles.

      On the other hand we’ve seen no such videos from Russia or even credible reports of this happening in Russia. Russia has had no shortage of people signing volunteer contracts so it has not yet had to resort to real mobilization. So this accusation is pure projection. It’s like if Israel were to accuse Iran of bombing schools with F-35 jets.

      • Maeve @lemmygrad.ml
        81·
        3 days ago

        Yeah, I wonder about our comrade who was trying to avoid this grim outcome. I do hope they’re alright.

        • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
          8·
          3 days ago

          Me too. I also hope this fosters a sense of community among Ukrainians who now have to come to each other’s defense to protect their friends, family and neighbors from being abducted by the conscription vans.

    • vyitnoomyr@lemmygrad.ml
      14·
      3 days ago

      They’ve also been saying that the entire war & I’ve seen them doing things to recruits that echo Operation Condor (they posted them so I don’t have any doubt about it) so you’ll have to forgive me for being dismissive. Russia has avoided conscription the entire time, with the exception of some of Prigozhin’s forces drawing from prison. I’m not sure how much that was based on people signing up from within, but it’s coercive regardless lol, I’d want to get out of prison immediately even if it meant getting droned, & then regret it.

      Based on the #s the Russians now outnumbering the Ukrainians is due to NATO running out of Ukrainians & MoD recuitment going steady.