Moscow (AFP) - Ukraine on Thursday launched its largest drone attack on Moscow in years, sparking fires in and around the capital, hitting a major oil refinery and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport, officials said.

At least 17 people were wounded in the strikes, which also set a shopping centre and apartment building ablaze, according to authorities.

AFP reporters saw large columns of black smoke spreading over the capital’s southern skyline in dramatic scenes, while drops of rain mixed with soot fell from the sky.

The attack came as Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in the central city of Kazan, about 700 kilometres (435 miles) east of Moscow.

Putin did not comment on the strikes as he spoke at the summit.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said they were an “absolutely justified response” to deadly strikes on Kyiv – including an attack earlier this week on a landmark cathedral and a UNESCO-protected 11th-century monastery.

He wanted Russians to blame Putin for the consequences of Europe’s worst war since WWII.

“The main thing is that the people of Russia begin to feel that it is one man, Putin, who is waging this war, while ordinary people pay the price for everything,” Zelensky told reporters, including AFP.

Moscow has hit Ukraine with daily barrages of missiles and drones. Kyiv said Thursday that one person was killed and nine others were wounded in a Russian attack on the city of Dnipro.

- Airport closures -

It was the second time this month that Kyiv launched a major attack during an international summit, after striking Saint Petersburg at the start of a landmark economic forum near the city.

All of Moscow’s airports were shut for hours, leading to hundreds of flight delays.

The country’s busiest – Sheremetyevo – announced it had evacuated passengers to “safe locations” during the barrage, before it re-opened at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT).

Konstantin, a pedestrian in a Moscow park, told AFP he had “never seen anything like it”.

Valentina, a 29-year-old manager walking with her daughter in front of the giant column of black smoke, said she was woken up by the noise.

“It’s really scary,” she told AFP.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that “several drones” had reached the Moscow oil refinery, without specifying damage to the facility.

Authorities announced they had closed traffic on streets nearby.

Another drone crashed into an apartment building, while drone debris sparked a fire at a shopping centre near the capital’s suburbs.

One social media video showed smoke pouring from the upper floors of an apartment block, while a woman behind the camera could be heard weeping in distress.

- ‘Long-range sanctions’ -

Russian air defences shot down around 180 drones on approach to Moscow, Sobyanin said, while the defence ministry reported it had intercepted more than 500 Ukrainian drones across the entire country overnight.

A separate Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s southern Rostov region killed one person, the region’s governor said.

Kyiv has stepped up its drone strikes on Russia in recent months, hitting oil refineries that fund Moscow’s war chest, as diplomatic talks on ending the more than four-year conflict remain stalled.

It was the second Ukrainian strike on the Moscow refinery this week.

Zelensky calls the attacks Kyiv’s “long-range sanctions”.

“It is time the war ended, and Russia must take the necessary steps in diplomacy,” he said.

Russia also launched more than 200 drones and multiple ballistic missiles at Ukraine between late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force.

AFP reporters in Kyiv saw people rushing to shelters in the early hours after air defence blasts rocked over the Ukrainian capital.

- Putin in Kazan -

In the hours following the attack, Putin posed for a photo with leaders at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kazan and made no mention of the strike in his opening remarks to the forum.

Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore sent their prime ministers to Kazan, while the Philippines sent President Ferdinand Marcos.

Putin has long sought to project stability in Russia, despite the economic and social effects of his four-year offensive on Ukraine.

But a recent spate of attacks has forced the Kremlin to respond.

After Kyiv launched similar attacks on Saint Petersburg earlier this month, the Russian leader promised to bolster air defences.

And Russia’s federal aviation regulator introduced a ban on civilian drones and light aircraft around Moscow’s airspace earlier this week, amid the strikes.

US leader Donald Trump this week said Moscow should “make a deal” to end the Ukraine war.

burs/yad