MOSCOW: Hundreds of drones targeted Moscow and the surrounding region on Sunday, killing at least two people and damaging a major oil refinery on the final day of Russia’s parliamentary elections, Russian authorities said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and destroyed, including around 450 that were heading towards the capital. He accused Ukraine of attempting to disrupt Russia’s three-day parliamentary elections, which began on Friday.
“The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed,” Sobyanin said on Telegram. Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov said two people – a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man – were killed in separate incidents.
A drone strike that caused a fire in a 21-storey residential building also prompted the evacuation of around 400 people, Vorobyov said. He did not identify the origin of the drones.
Sobyanin said a facility at the Moscow Oil Refinery had also been damaged, although no casualties were reported there. Emergency services were working at the site. The refinery has previously been targeted in Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
The latest attacks come as Kyiv has intensified its long-range drone campaign against Russia, particularly targeting energy infrastructure that provides revenue to the Kremlin and supports its war effort.
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The strikes also followed comments by US President Donald Trump on Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed not to target each other’s energy facilities.
The attacks occurred as Russians went to the polls in the country’s first parliamentary elections since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The three-day vote is expected to further consolidate President Vladimir Putin’s political dominance.
Russia has also extended parliamentary voting to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Moscow considers to have rejoined the Russian Federation. Kyiv, however, considers these areas to have been occupied by Russia.
Reports claim that only parties supportive of Putin and the Kremlin’s military campaign have been registered to contest the election. While Putin’s United Russia party is widely expected to retain its dominant position in parliament, the election is also being viewed as a measure of public sentiment towards the war.
