Ukraine Hit Angstrem, Moscow Oil Refinery, Two Pumping Stations; Sheremetyevo Runway Fire
The Institute for the Study of War’s 17 May Russian campaign assessment confirms that Ukrainian forces struck the Angstrem Semiconductor Plant at the Elma Technopark in Zelenograd, northwest of Moscow City — a plant producing microelectronics for high-precision weapons — alongside the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya Raion and the Solnechnogorsk and Volodarsk oil pumping stations, with a separate strike triggering a runway fire at Sheremetyevo International Airport. Russia’s Transportation Ministry confirmed 51 flight diversions and said two-thirds of flights from Moscow airports were delayed by more than two hours. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin acknowledged the refinery strike but claimed only the “checkpoint” was hit.
the 16-17 May strike series “proved that Russia continues to be unable to effectively defend the Russian capital”, generating significant frustration in the Russian ultranationalist information space. Russian state media gave the strikes only about a minute of coverage on Perviy Kanal, Rossiya-1 and NTV combined, according to Agentstvo. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, asked about “powerful bombs” from a “nuclear power state”, said Russia “cannot be threatened as a nuclear power and its very existence cannot be threatened”. Some Russian milbloggers called for retaliation with tactical nuclear weapons and criticised both Peskov and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as inadequate. Ukraine separately struck the Belbek military airfield in occupied Sevastopol — hitting a Pantsir-S2, an S-400 radar hangar, Orion and Forpost drone control systems, a ground-to-air data transmission system and the control tower — and a Russian FSB patrol ship in the Caspian Sea, roughly 1,000 kilometres from the frontline.