Moscow Mayor Calls Ukrainian Drone Barrage Largest Ever as Russia Votes

Ukraine fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds aimed at Moscow, in what the capital’s mayor called the largest attack the city has faced, as Russia finished the third and last day of its parliamentary election, according to CBS News and Al Jazeera. Russian officials said the barrage killed at least two people and damaged a major oil refinery and a residential building.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 450 drones were destroyed on their way to the capital and called the assault “unprecedented,” CBS News reported. He said it was “clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections” and added that “the enemy failed in this regard,” according to Al Jazeera. Moscow region Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said two people died, a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, and 20 were wounded, CBS News reported; Al Jazeera, citing officials, put the toll at at least three after a third person died of injuries. A drone struck a 21-story apartment building and started a fire that forced about 400 residents to evacuate, Al Jazeera reported.

The numbers vary by source. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 1,110 Ukrainian drones across the country, over Crimea and over the Black Sea, CBS News reported, while Mr. Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted since Saturday, according to Al Jazeera. Neither figure could be independently confirmed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky took credit for the strikes and said Ukraine also used its domestically built Flamingo and Pelican missiles against oil and logistics facilities, CBS News reported. Of the oil and logistics sites hit, he said, “these are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” and Al Jazeera quoted him saying Ukraine’s long-range actions had a significant effect on Russia’s oil industry. Kyiv has intensified its long-range campaign against energy infrastructure to cut Kremlin revenue, according to Al Jazeera.

Russia kept up its own strikes. A Russian drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday evening killed a mother and her two children, and another child wounded in the same attack died in a hospital Sunday, regional administrator Tymur Tkachenko said, according to CBS News. Al Jazeera reported at least four deaths overnight in the Kyiv region, including three children, and at least three in the Kherson region.

The attack came as Washington stepped up its role. On Friday the State Department approved a potential $2.68 billion sale of air defense equipment to Ukraine, and President Trump signed a law imposing new sanctions on Russia, CBS News reported. Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky spoke on Sunday and agreed to meet in New York, where the United Nations General Assembly is meeting this week; Mr. Zelensky said the meeting could lead to progress on energy security, food security and the protection of civilians, according to CBS News.

The Russian vote was the first parliamentary election held during the war, with almost no opposition, and is expected to strengthen President Vladimir Putin’s control, CBS News reported. Voting also took place in four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed but does not fully control and in Crimea; Kyiv considers the annexations illegal. Mr. Putin has shown no sign of ending the invasion, and fighting along the roughly 780-mile front has slowed as drones and ground robots make troop movements difficult, CBS News said, leaving both sides leaning on long-range air strikes.