Two killed in Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, says Russia

At least two people have been killed and a major refinery damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, including the capital city, as the Russian parliamentary elections enter their final day.

Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Sunday more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted, 450 of which were heading for the capital.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, authorities said at least four people were killed in overnight Russian attacks on the Kyiv region, including three children.

The attacks come as Russia and Ukraine continue to escalate long-range strikes against each other.

Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov said on social media that a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man were killed in two separate Ukrainian attacks. A fire triggered by a drone crashing into a 21-storey building forced the evacuation of 400 people, Vorobyov said.

Sobyanin said a facility at the Moscow oil refinery was also damaged in the wave of attacks, and emergency services were on the scene. The major refinery has already been hit by Ukrainian strikes in recent months.

He accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with Russia’s tightly controlled three-day election.

“The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed,” he said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the strikes, saying: “Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.”

“One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” he posted on X.

Separately, the head ⁠of ⁠Russia’s Central Election Commission said ⁠a drone attack on ⁠a civilian bus killed two people, including an election official, ‌in a Russian-occupied part of Kherson region in Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The strikes come as Kyiv has intensified its long-range drone campaign against Russia, particularly targeting energy infrastructure to cut off a vital source of Kremlin revenue used to fund its war effort, now in its fifth year.

Al Jazeera’s Dmitry Medvedenko, reporting from Moscow, said this was among the largest single-day attacks on Russia since the war began.

“I have not seen numbers this large in the four and a half years of this conflict, especially in the past six months when Ukrainian attacks have escalated,” he said.

Medvedenko said it is no coincidence that this large-scale attack is happening on the last day of the Russian elections.

“This is the most important final day of the election. Will it cause people to express their frustration with how this conflict has been affecting them directly after four and a half years? Will it cause them to rally around the flag here, show unity, as President Vladimir Putin was calling on people to do? We will have to wait and see.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 138 drones of various types across the country overnight, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. It said air defences managed to shoot down 101 of them.

A woman and her two three-year-old children died when a Russian drone hit a home in the Kyiv region, according to the emergency service. Kyiv region’s Governor Tymur Tkachenko said a girl died in hospital after a separate drone strike in another district.

Tkachenko said the region endured more than a day of attacks, with 31 sites damaged across five districts. The southwestern Fastiv district sustained the most damage, with 24 sites hit, including homes, industrial and utility buildings, vehicles, and the grounds of an agricultural enterprise.

Russia has been repeatedly attacking Kyiv and the surrounding region with drones in recent weeks.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said the Kyiv region has been targeted frequently in recent days.

“These strikes have been going on in Kyiv, where you get the air raid sirens going off pretty much around the clock, with drones coming in and missiles being used on occasion as well. So, it’s part of the reality of life in Ukraine at the moment.”