MOSCOW, Sept 20: Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones toward targets across Russia overnight, according to Russian officials, in an attack that Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as the largest of its kind against the Russian capital.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces intercepted and destroyed around 1,100 Ukrainian drones across several areas, including Crimea and parts of the Black Sea.
Sobyanin said approximately 450 drones were destroyed while heading toward Moscow. He added that some drones struck the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building.
The large-scale drone attack took place on the third and final day of Russia’s parliamentary elections, which are being held amid the ongoing war with Ukraine.
Russian authorities described the attack as an attempt to disrupt the voting process. Sobyanin said the effort had failed to interfere with the elections.
Russia also conducted voting in four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed since the start of the war, as well as in Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Ukraine has rejected the territorial claims and described the voting in occupied areas as illegal.
The latest drone barrage marks another major escalation in the use of long-range unmanned attacks during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
