Ukraine launches over 1,000 drones in massive strike on Russia during election

Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones at locations throughout Russia overnight, with hundreds directed toward the capital as the country concluded its wartime parliamentary election. Russian officials said the Ministry of Defense intercepted 1,110 drones over Russian territory, Crimea and the Black Sea, while Moscow's mayor reported that 450 drones were destroyed before reaching the city.

The attacks caused damage to the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building, and resulted in two civilian deaths—a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman—and 20 injuries in the Moscow region, according to regional governor Andrei Vorobyov.

"This unprecedented attack on Moscow was an attempt to disrupt the elections. The enemy failed in this regard," said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the operation employed a mix of missiles and domestically produced drones, including the Flamingo and Pelican systems, targeting oil and logistics facilities he described as "billions of dollars that sustain the war machine."

The drone strike coincided with a Russian drone attack on a monastery in the Kherson region, which killed a clergy member and wounded four people, and a separate Russian strike on Kyiv that killed two children and their mother.

The election, held in Russia and in the four Ukrainian regions it annexed, proceeded with little visible opposition, and Kyiv has condemned the vote as illegal.