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Moscow comes under ‘largest ever’ drone attack
Agencies, Moscow
Published: 21 Sep 2026, 12:00 AM
Mayor of Russian capital Moscow on Sunday said Ukraine carried out its “largest ever” attack on the Russian capital and the surrounding area as voting in parliamentary elections entered the final day.
More than 1,110 drones were launched, killing at least two people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region, while the attack damaged a major oil refinery.
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.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast the parliamentary election as a test of support for the war in Ukraine.
The State Duma vote, the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, is expected to see the ruling United Russia party easily retain its dominance in a political system critics say does not tolerate dissent.
The Kremlin is likely to present the outcome as evidence of public backing for Putin's policies and for the war, now in its fifth year with no sign of ending soon.
The election authorities said the three days of voting have proceeded smoothly despite cyberattacks reported on Saturday. Turnout was at over 50% by early afternoon Moscow time, Interfax news agency reported, citing the Central Election Commission.
The Moscow mayor said that more than 1,600 drones had been shot down across Russia since Saturday, and that 450 of them were approaching the capital city. “Nevertheless, several drones reached the territory of the Moscow Refinery, and one struck a residential building,” he said.
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.”
Meanwhile, a Russian strike in the Kyiv region has killed at least four people, three of them children, the Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
The attack late on Saturday also damaged 31 sites, including apartment buildings, a warehouse and farming and industrial infrastructure, according to regional governor Timur Tkachenko.
"A child who was wounded in the enemy's attack in the Vychgorod district died in hospital. The number of people killed in the Kyiv region has risen to four: three children and a woman," Tkachenko posted on Telegram.
Russian strikes also targeted the railways in central Ukraine on Sunday, while a drone attack on a monastery killed a priest and wounded four other people on Saturday, according to the local authorities.
Russia meanwhile said it had been targeted by a mass barrage.