Ukraine Strikes Moscow with Drones and Missiles as Russian Vote Ends

Ukraine unleashed an extensive wave of drones and domestically manufactured missiles against the Moscow region on Sunday, striking a primary oil refinery and residential neighbourhoods on the closing day of Russia's parliamentary elections.

Russian regional authorities stated that at least two individuals died and twenty others suffered injuries in the Moscow area. Governor Andrei Vorobyov said a 44-year-old woman lost her life when an apartment building was struck in Sofyino, while an elderly resident died in the Orekhovo-Zuevo district. The Guardian reported that about 400 residents were evacuated from a burning 21-storey tower block following an impact.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed air defence units repelled 450 aerial devices flying toward the capital, describing the bombardment as an unprecedented effort to disrupt the three-day ballot. According to Al Jazeera, Sobyanin asserted that Russian forces had brought down more than 1,600 drones across the country since Saturday. However, The Guardian noted that observers view such tallies as inflated, highlighting estimates that place Kyiv's daily discharge in the low hundreds.

The Guardian also reported that Ukrainian forces deployed domestic ballistic technology for the first time in the war alongside Flamingo cruise missiles. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian units had successfully struck a critical oil installation and associated transport infrastructure, depriving Moscow of resources that fund its invasion. Ukrainian defence officials told the BBC that three functional units were damaged at the Moscow oil refinery, which supplies more than a third of the capital area's fuel.

Russian transport regulators briefly halted departures and arrivals at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports before normalising traffic later on Sunday morning, the BBC reported. In Russian-controlled Kherson, state media claimed two people died, including an election worker, when a drone struck a passenger bus.

The cross-border escalation follows relentless Russian bombardments against Ukraine over the weekend. Al Jazeera reported that Russian strikes killed a woman and two young children in Fastiv, along with another child in Vyshhorod within the Kyiv territory. The BBC reported that four additional civilians were killed when a Russian drone hit an automobile in the Sumy region, and a member of the clergy died in an attack on a Kherson monastery, bringing Ukraine's weekend death toll to at least nine.

The hostilities undermine recent claims by United States President Donald Trump that both warring parties had negotiated a halt to mutual strikes against energy infrastructure. The strikes also occur shortly after Washington approved statutory powers to enforce 100 percent tariffs on international purchasers of Russian hydrocarbons, including neighbouring economies such as China and India.