New Delhi, June 25 -- MOSCOW - The black smoke over the southeastern edge of the Russian capital on Thursday announced the thing the Kremlin has been warning about for weeks, that Ukraine's war is no longer being fought only on the territory Russia controls, and that each strike deeper into Russia invites a heavier answer. Ukrainian drones hit the Moscow Oil Refinery for the second time in a week, part of a barrage aimed at more than a dozen Russian regions, CBC News reported, and within hours Russian officials were promising that the reply would be larger than the provocation.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses destroyed roughly 555 drones over the course of the night, about 180 of them as they closed on Moscow, one of the ...