Ukraine hammers Moscow as Russia votes

What happened

Ukraine hit a major oil refinery in Moscow on Sunday, along with a warehouse and residential buildings, in what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called Kyiv’s “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital. Sobyanin said “a few drones” got through, out of 1,600 targeting the Moscow region, including 450 aimed at the city, and the attack was “clearly planned with the aim of disrupting” Sunday’s final day of voting in Russia’s first parliamentary elections since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv said it was targeting Moscow’s Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery to deprive Russia of war funding.

Who said what

Ukraine has been using its drones to “make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement,” The Associated Press said. Kyiv’s refinery attacks have caused months of “widespread fuel shortages” in Russia, The New York Times said. Even before Sunday’s strikes, not “many fuel stations had any gas to sell.”

What next?

With almost all electoral competition quashed, Putin’s “ruling United Russia party is expected to retain its dominance in the parliament and present the win as proof of public support for the war,” Politico said. With 95% of votes counted, Putin’s party had nearly 58%, Russia’s Central Election Commission said Monday, though results will not be official until Sept. 25.

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