Ukraine unleashed more than 1,000 drones and additional missiles against targets across Russia overnight, including hundreds aimed at Moscow, killing two people in the surrounding region and damaging an oil refinery as Russia concluded its three-day parliamentary elections.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Ukraine launched one of its largest long-range attacks of the war against Russia overnight into Sunday, sending more than 1,000 drones across the country and directing hundreds toward Moscow in an assault that struck energy and logistics targets while Russians cast ballots on the final day of parliamentary elections.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the barrage against the capital as the “largest ever” and said drones reached the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building despite extensive Russian air-defense operations.

Two people were killed and 20 were wounded across the wider Moscow region, according to regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov. The fatalities were a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.

A residential building was among the locations damaged outside central Moscow, while Russian authorities reported evacuations as emergency crews responded to fires and debris from the attack.

Ukraine also struck the Moscow Oil Refinery, an important fuel-producing facility that has previously been targeted during Kyiv’s campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the broader operation and said Ukrainian forces employed several types of weapons, including domestically produced Flamingo and Pelican missiles as well as long-range drones.

The targets included Russian oil and logistics facilities that Kyiv says contribute financially and materially to Moscow’s military campaign.

“These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted approximately 1,100 Ukrainian drones across Russian territory as well as over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. The Associated Press reported the ministry’s total as 1,110 drones.

Moscow authorities separately said approximately 450 drones had been headed toward the Russian capital.

Sobyanin characterized the attack as “unprecedented” and accused Ukraine of timing the operation to interfere with Russia’s parliamentary vote.

“The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections,” Sobyanin said.

“The enemy failed in this regard,” he added.

Ukraine’s attack came as Russia entered the third and final day of its first parliamentary elections since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Voting ran from Sept. 18 through Sept. 20 for seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. The election took place under a political environment in which anti-war opposition has been sharply restricted and many opponents of President Vladimir Putin’s policies have been barred from participating or pushed out of organized political activity.

Russia also organized voting in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and in portions of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed to annex after launching its full-scale invasion but does not completely control.

Ukraine rejects Russia’s sovereignty over those territories and has denounced voting conducted there as illegitimate.

The election nevertheless proceeded as long-range attacks increasingly reached areas far removed from the approximately 1,250-kilometer, or 780-mile, battlefield stretching through eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia’s ground offensive and Ukrainian defensive operations have become heavily shaped by drones, which can detect and strike troop concentrations, vehicles, artillery and supply movements across extensive portions of the front.

Those conditions have made large troop movements increasingly dangerous and have contributed to both countries expanding their use of long-range weapons against targets hundreds of miles behind opposing lines.

Ukraine has invested heavily in developing its own drone and missile industry since the Russian invasion and now uses domestically produced systems for strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Kyiv has increasingly concentrated those attacks on oil refineries, fuel storage facilities, logistics hubs and other infrastructure connected to the Russian economy and military supply system.

The strategy is intended in part to increase the economic cost of the war for Moscow by damaging facilities that generate revenue or provide fuel and supplies for Russian forces.

Ukraine has also sought to demonstrate to Russians far from the front that the consequences of the conflict can reach major population centers and economic facilities inside the country.

Sunday’s assault brought that strategy directly to Moscow on an unusually large scale.

Smoke was visible near the Moscow refinery following the attack, according to witnesses cited by Reuters, while officials said several drones had reached the refinery grounds.

The facility has been hit previously during Ukraine’s campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. A June drone attack caused a fire and disrupted operations at the refinery, which is an important fuel supplier for the Moscow region.

The new strike came as Russia and Ukraine continue trading increasingly large aerial attacks despite the slower movement of ground forces along much of the front.

Russia has likewise continued extensive drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, energy facilities, industrial infrastructure and logistics networks.

The result has been an expanding long-distance war running simultaneously with the ground fighting: Russia targeting Ukrainian infrastructure while Ukraine attempts to degrade Russian energy revenues, logistics and military-support facilities deeper inside Russian territory.

The scale of Ukraine’s Sunday operation illustrates how dramatically unmanned warfare has expanded since the invasion began.

Ukraine entered the war with far more limited domestic production capacity but has since developed an extensive industry producing reconnaissance drones, short-range attack drones and long-range systems capable of reaching targets hundreds of miles away.

Its battlefield use of unmanned aircraft has drawn significant international attention as militaries and defense manufacturers study how relatively inexpensive drones can alter conventional warfare.

Kyiv has increasingly paired those systems with domestically developed missiles.

Zelenskyy’s reference to Flamingo and Pelican missiles in Sunday’s operation underscored Ukraine’s effort to develop strike weapons that do not depend entirely on foreign-supplied long-range systems.

The growing arsenal allows Ukraine to attack Russian oil, transportation and military infrastructure while preserving foreign-provided weapons for other missions.

Moscow, meanwhile, has expanded air defenses around the capital and other strategically important regions as Ukrainian drones have repeatedly penetrated Russian airspace.

Russian authorities said Sunday’s defenses destroyed hundreds of drones approaching Moscow, although some still reached their targets.

The attack also occurred during a politically sensitive weekend for the Kremlin.

Russia’s parliamentary election was taking place more than four years after Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion. The political environment surrounding the vote contained little organized opposition to the war or to Putin’s broader policies, with significant restrictions placed on anti-war political activity.

Sobyanin directly connected the timing of the Moscow attack to the election, describing it as an effort to disrupt voting.

Ukraine’s stated explanation for its long-range strike campaign has instead focused largely on Russia’s ability to finance and sustain military operations.

Zelenskyy’s comments Sunday again emphasized the economic objective, pointing specifically to oil and logistics facilities and arguing that attacks on those targets reduce resources available to the Russian military.

With movement across much of the front constrained by persistent aerial surveillance and strike drones, both sides have increasingly looked beyond the battlefield for ways to weaken their opponent.

For Ukraine, that has meant developing weapons capable of reaching Russian refineries, transportation systems and military-support facilities at steadily greater distances.

Sunday’s barrage demonstrated the scale that campaign has now reached: more than 1,000 drones sent toward targets across Russia in a single overnight operation, hundreds directed at Moscow and additional Ukrainian-made missiles used against infrastructure Kyiv says helps finance and supply Russia’s war effort.

Original article