Moscow targeted by Ukraine’s largest ever drone attack on final day of Russia’s election
(CNN) — Ukraine carried out its largest ever drone attack on the Russian capital and the surrounding area as voting in parliamentary elections entered the final day.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Sunday that more than 1,900 drones, eight guided aerial bombs, eight cruise missiles and four rockets were shot down overnight. That tally makes the attack Ukraine’s largest ever, although Kyiv did not confirm the exact number of drones and projectiles it fired.
At least three people were killed and a major oil refinery in Moscow region was damaged.
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin linked the attack to the vote, saying it “was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections.”
“The enemy did not succeed,” he said.
Sunday is the third and final day of Russia’s first parliamentary elections since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the absence of any credible opposition, President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is widely expected to win.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the attack against Russia in a statement on Telegram, but he did not mention the election. Among the areas voting are four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia but not fully under the Kremlin’s control.
“Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night,” Zelensky said, adding that the facilities that were targeted were bringing in “billions of dollars that sustain the war machine.”
Ukrainian General Staff said later that the main target of the attack was the Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district of the Russian capital. The facility is one of the largest refineries in the country in terms of volume.
Massive attack
Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, said that some 450 drones that were approaching the capital city were shot down.
“Nevertheless, several drones reached the territory of the Moscow Refinery, and one struck a residential building,” he said.
The governor of the wider Moscow region, Andrey Vorobiev, said three people were killed – two in the attack and one who died later in a hospital. He said 20 others, including three children, were injured in the attacks overnight.
Separately, nine people were injured in the Belgorod region in southern Russia, according to local authorities.
At the same time, Russia continued attacking Ukraine with drones and missiles. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv region military administration, said attacks overnight into Sunday killed three children and one woman.
Russia has been hammering Ukraine, and Kyiv in particular, with near constant aerial attacks for almost a month now. Zelensky said on Sunday that this week alone, Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 19 missiles of various types against Ukraine.
The-CNN-Wire
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