Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds targeting Moscow, in what officials on Sunday described as the “largest ever” attack on the Russian capital.Two people were killed and 20 injured across the wider Moscow region, local governor Andrei Vorobyov said. The strikes also damaged a Moscow oil refinery and a residential building.Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack on refinery, as part of Kyiv’s efforts to dismantle Russia’s energy infrastructure that funds its war campaigns.“These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine”, Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that a range of missiles and drones including domestically developed Flamingo and Pelican missiles were used to hit the oil and logistics facilities.Meanwhile a mother and her two children were killed in an overnight Russian drone attack near Kyiv, Ukraine’s emergency service said.Russia’s defense ministry said 1,100 Ukrainian drones were shot down across the country, including the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.
Strikes during last day of elections
The attacks came on the third and final day of Russian parliamentary elections.Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the “unprecedented attack” was an attempt to disrupt the elections. “The enemy failed in this regard,” he said, adding that 450 drones were destroyed while approaching the capital.Russia also held parliamentary voting in the four partially controlled Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia it annexed during the initial days of war. Voting was also held in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.Ukraine considers the voting in the occupied territories illegal.Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago, Ukraine has developed increasingly advanced military drone capabilities. Kyiv has used domestically produced long-range drones, alongside missiles, to carry out strikes deep inside Russian territory. The country’s drone technology has also drawn attention from governments and defence manufacturers internationally.According to the Associated Press, Kyiv’s strategy is aimed at making the Russian public feel the consequences of the war and increasing pressure on President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace settlement. Putin has so far given no indication that he intends to halt the invasion.Instead, Russia and Ukraine have become increasingly engaged in long-range aerial strikes against each other’s territory.Meanwhile, fighting along the roughly 1,250 km front line in eastern and southern Ukraine has reportedly slowed, with large numbers of drones and ground robots making troop movements increasingly difficult.
