Hundreds of drones hit Moscow on final day of Russia's parliamentary election, at least two dead
A massive drone attack struck Moscow and its region on the last day of Russia's parliamentary election, killing at least two people and damaging a major oil refinery. Moscow's mayor accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt the vote.
An unprecedented wave of drones targeted Moscow and its surrounding region on Sunday, the final day of Russia's three-day parliamentary election, authorities said. At least two people were killed and a major oil refinery was damaged in the attack.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and shot down, with 450 of them aimed directly at Moscow. Writing on Telegram, he claimed the attack was clearly planned to disrupt the election and blamed Ukraine, saying the effort had failed.
Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov said a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man were killed in two separate locations. In one incident, a drone crashed into a 21-storey building, sparking a fire that forced the evacuation of around 400 people. A facility at the Moscow oil refinery was also damaged, though no casualties were reported there, with emergency crews on the scene. The refinery has been struck repeatedly by Ukrainian attacks in recent months.
The strikes come as Kyiv has intensified its long-range drone campaign against Russia in recent months, focusing heavily on energy infrastructure, a critical source of revenue funding the Kremlin's war, now in its fifth year. Ukrainian strikes have already knocked out a substantial share of Russia's oil refining capacity, causing fuel shortages, rising prices and long lines at filling stations across the country.
Ukraine has not commented on the attack, and both sides maintain they do not target civilians. The strike follows a statement last Monday by US president Donald Trump that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to target each other's energy facilities.
The vote marks Russia's first parliamentary election since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Only parties supporting Putin and the Kremlin's military campaign were allowed to run, and voting was also organised in occupied Ukrainian territory. While Putin's United Russia party is widely expected to win comfortably again, the election is seen as a barometer of public sentiment toward the war.
