Ukraine launched what Moscow’s mayor called the biggest drone attack yet on the Russian capital on Sunday, as Russians voted on the final day of a parliamentary election that President Vladimir Putin has cast as a test of support for the war in Ukraine.
The drone strikes killed two people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, including an election official, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and election authorities. A facility at Moscow’s oil refinery, which has been targeted before, was also damaged.
“The biggest attack by enemy drones has been repelled,” Sobyanin said on Telegram. “This unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed.”
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.
-Reuters
