MOSCOW, Sept 20 – Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones toward targets across Russia overnight, including hundreds aimed at Moscow, Russian officials said Sunday. The unusually large barrage came as Russia entered the final day of a three-day parliamentary election, adding another layer of tension to voting that has taken place under wartime conditions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the assault the largest drone attack ever directed at the Russian capital. He said Russian air defenses intercepted hundreds of drones before they could reach the city, but the strikes still caused damage, including at an oil refinery and a residential building.
The attack also caused casualties in the wider Moscow region. Regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said two people were killed and 20 others wounded. The victims were identified as a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.
The scale of the attack highlighted the growing reach of Ukraine’s domestically developed weapons as Kyiv continues to target Russian military, energy and logistical infrastructure far from the front line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had used a combination of drones and missiles during the operation. Among the weapons he mentioned were the domestically produced Flamingo and Pelican missiles, which he said were used against oil and logistics facilities.
Zelenskyy said the attacks were intended to put additional pressure on the Russian economy by striking infrastructure that helps finance Moscow’s military campaign.
“These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” Zelenskyy said in a social media statement.
Russian authorities gave a much larger figure for the number of weapons involved. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had destroyed 1,110 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, as well as over Crimea and areas of the Black Sea. The ministry’s figure could not be independently verified.
Sobyanin said 450 drones were destroyed while approaching Moscow. He reported damage at the Moscow Oil Refinery and to a residential building, although the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
The Moscow mayor described the overnight assault as unprecedented and said Ukraine was seeking to interfere with Russia’s parliamentary election. He maintained that the attempt had failed and that voting continued.
The timing of the strikes was significant because Russia was holding its first parliamentary election since the war entered its fourth year. Voting was conducted over three days, with Sunday marking the final day.
Russia votes in an election devoid of opposition
Russia’s parliamentary election has been held in an environment where meaningful political opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s policies has been severely restricted. The results are expected to reinforce the Kremlin’s political dominance, while opposition figures and groups have faced restrictions, imprisonment, exile or exclusion from the ballot.
The voting has also extended into four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed but does not fully control. Ukrainian authorities and much of the international community reject those territorial claims. Russia also held voting in Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.
The Ukrainian government has condemned the organization of Russian elections in occupied Ukrainian territory as illegal.
The fighting surrounding the election was not limited to Russian territory. Russia’s Central Election Commission said a member of a local electoral committee was killed in a Ukrainian attack in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.
At the same time, Ukraine continued to face Russian attacks across its territory.
Zelenskyy said a Russian drone strike hit a monastery in the Kherson region on Saturday, killing a member of the clergy and injuring four other people.
Another Russian strike hit Kyiv on Saturday evening, killing a mother and her two children, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional state administration. Tkachenko later reported that another child who had been wounded in the attack died in a hospital on Sunday.
The deaths underscored the continuing toll on civilians as both sides increasingly rely on long-range weapons rather than limiting attacks to positions close to the battlefield.
Ukraine has rapidly expanded its drone industry since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Ukrainian forces now use large numbers of domestically produced drones capable of reaching targets hundreds of kilometers inside Russia. Kyiv has also increasingly combined drones with cruise and ballistic missiles in attacks against energy facilities, military installations and logistics networks.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly argued that strikes against Russian infrastructure are designed to raise the economic cost of the war and demonstrate to the Russian population that the conflict cannot be isolated from everyday life.
The strategy has also become part of Ukraine’s broader effort to pressure Putin’s government while seeking favorable conditions for eventual negotiations. So far, the Russian president has shown no public indication that Moscow is prepared to end its invasion on terms sought by Kyiv.
The growing use of long-range drones has created a new dimension to the conflict. Russian cities and industrial centers that once appeared far removed from the battlefield have increasingly become potential targets, while Russia has continued launching its own waves of drones and missiles against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The aerial campaign has developed alongside a changing battlefield in eastern and southern Ukraine. The roughly 1,250-kilometer front line remains the main arena of ground combat, but the movement of troops and equipment has become increasingly difficult because of widespread drone surveillance and attacks.
Both Russia and Ukraine are also using ground-based robotic systems and unmanned technology, reducing the ability of troops and vehicles to move safely in exposed areas.
The latest Ukrainian assault therefore represents more than another overnight exchange of drones. Its scale, its proximity to Moscow and its timing during Russia’s parliamentary vote demonstrate how the war has increasingly extended beyond conventional front-line battles.
For Russia, the attacks pose a continuing challenge to air defenses and critical infrastructure. For Ukraine, long-range drone operations provide a way to strike targets deep inside Russia without relying exclusively on conventional aircraft.
As both sides expand their ability to launch attacks over long distances, the conflict is becoming increasingly defined by a contest of drones, missiles, industrial capacity and economic endurance, even as fighting continues along the ground in Ukraine.