Hundreds of Drones Target Moscow as Two Are Killed on Final Day of Russian Election.

Hundreds of Drones Target Moscow as Two Are Killed on Final Day of Russian Election

_At least two people have been killed after a massive wave of drones targeted Moscow and the surrounding region, striking an oil refinery and residential buildings as Russians cast ballots on the final day of the country’s parliamentary election._

Moscow came under what the city’s mayor described as the largest Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian capital since the war began, with Russian authorities saying more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted across the country since Saturday, including about 450 headed towards Moscow.

The attack killed two people in the wider Moscow region, according to regional authorities. A 44-year-old woman and an elderly man were killed in separate incidents, while a drone strike on a 21-storey residential building in the Ramenskoye district triggered an evacuation of about 400 people, including 70 children.

In Moscow itself, drones reached the grounds of the Moscow oil refinery, one of the Russian capital’s major fuel facilities. Witnesses reported hearing explosions and seeing thick smoke rising from the refinery, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said part of the facility had been damaged.

The refinery has previously been targeted during Ukraine’s expanding campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. The plant processed about 11.6 million tonnes of crude oil in 2024, producing roughly 2.9 million tonnes of gasoline and 3.2 million tonnes of diesel, according to the latest available figures.

The timing of the attack has given it an additional political dimension. Russia was holding the third and final day of its parliamentary election on Sunday, the first such election since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Sobyanin said the attack was deliberately intended to disrupt the vote, but that the attempt had failed. Ukraine has not publicly commented on the specific strikes, and there is no independent confirmation of the Russian mayor’s assessment of their purpose.

The election itself is taking place under the shadow of the war. The Kremlin has presented the vote as a measure of national support for its policies and for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, while critics of Russia’s political system point to restrictions on opposition candidates and dissent. Voting has also been organised in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, a move Kyiv and its allies reject.

The drone attack adds another layer to an increasingly long-range war. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian oil facilities and other infrastructure that support the country’s war economy, while Russia continues to launch strikes against Ukrainian cities and energy facilities.

The latest attack also comes despite a recent announcement by US President Donald Trump that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop targeting each other’s energy infrastructure. The continued strikes suggest that any such understanding has not prevented attacks on energy sites.

For Moscow, the immediate concern is damage inside the capital region. For the Kremlin, the timing is more difficult: the country’s parliamentary vote was reaching its final hours when one of the largest drone barrages yet seen over Moscow brought the war directly into the capital’s skies.