Russia Votes on Final Day as Ukraine Hits Moscow with Major Drone Attack

Ukraine mounted what Moscow's mayor described as the largest drone attack on the Russian capital to date on Sunday, the closing day of a parliamentary election that President Vladimir Putin has framed as a measure of public support for the war in Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the assault was an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt voting. In a statement on Telegram, he said more than 1,600 drones had been downed across all fronts since the previous day, with 450 of them approaching Moscow. One drone struck a residential building, he added, but no residents were killed.

"This unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed," Sobyanin said.

Two people were killed in the surrounding Moscow region, local authorities said. The capital's oil refinery, which has been targeted before, was also struck, and witnesses reported hearing blasts in the city and seeing smoke rising from the site. The extent of damage to the facility was not immediately clear. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The State Duma vote is the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022. The ruling United Russia party is widely expected to retain its dominance in a political system that critics say does not tolerate dissent. The Kremlin is likely to present the result as evidence of public backing for Putin's policies and for the war, now in its fifth year with no sign of ending.

Most anti-war candidates were barred from the ballot. The liberal Yabloko party, which has polled in single digits in recent years but hoped to draw on war fatigue, said its members feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures before the vote over comments about the conflict that authorities deemed illegal. Discrediting the army or spreading what authorities regard as fake news carries lengthy prison sentences.

In a small act of defiance, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov visibly spoiled his ballot paper, writing his party's name and the slogan "For peace."

The Kremlin says national unity and some censorship are necessary during what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine. It portrays the conflict as part of an existential struggle with a hostile West and says Ukrainian intelligence services and other enemies are stepping up efforts to stir unrest inside Russia.

Russian electoral officials said on Saturday that an online voting system in Moscow had come under cyberattack. Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, has dismissed the Russian vote as a "pseudo election."

Putin on Friday accused Ukraine of trying to interfere in the election, citing what he said was a Ukrainian strike on the home of an election official in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region that killed the official, Elena Astanina. The details of the attack could not be independently verified and there was no comment from Kyiv.

Despite what experts see as a predictable outcome, the NEST think-tank in Berlin, co-founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom Russian authorities have designated a "foreign agent," said the vote could still produce awkward moments for the Kremlin amid economic strain.

"The consequences of the war are increasingly being felt within the country, and accumulated anxiety and frustration may translate into votes for the systemic opposition parties that the Kremlin has allowed to remain on the ballot," it said in a note. It added that the Communist party and the New People party could attract votes the authorities would prefer to go to United Russia. Both parties have consistently voted in line with United Russia on major issues.

In a televised address before the election, Putin told the nation that the vote would underline support for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. "Your choice, and your will, will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory, and love for our homeland, and that no one will succeed in dividing or intimidating us," he said.

Initial results are expected to begin emerging at around 1800 GMT on Sunday, with more complete results available on Monday.