RUSSIA THREATENS STRONGER STRIKES AFTER MAJOR DRONE ATTACK DURING ELECTIONS

Russia has vowed to intensify its military strikes on Kyiv after Ukraine launched a major wave of drone attacks against Moscow and surrounding areas on the final day of Russia’s parliamentary elections. The attacks on Sunday killed two people, damaged buildings and reportedly caused a fire at an oil refinery, according to Russian officials. Moscow authorities described the assault as one of the largest drone attacks on the capital since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said about 1,600 Ukrainian drones were launched towards Russia, with around 450 targeting Moscow directly. The attacks caused damage to residential buildings and other infrastructure, while about 400 people were forced to evacuate from affected areas. Russian authorities said the scale of the attack created significant disruption as voters were completing the final day of a three-day parliamentary election.

Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with the electoral process and said Moscow would respond by increasing strikes against military targets in Kyiv. The ministry said the Russian military would intensify what it described as high-precision attacks in response to Ukrainian strikes on targets inside Russia. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, defended his country’s long-range attacks, saying they had a significant impact on the Moscow region and affected important facilities linked to Russia’s war effort.

The drone attacks also occurred amid reports of cyberattacks against Russia’s election infrastructure. Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova said more than 1,000 waves of distributed denial-of-service attacks had targeted systems involved in the voting process. She said the attacks appeared to have been carried out by highly coordinated groups using artificial intelligence tools, while Russian officials also reported attempts to disrupt communication networks in parts of the country.

The attacks came as Russia’s ruling United Russia party was leading in an exit poll conducted after the parliamentary voting ended. The state-run pollster reported that United Russia had secured 49.4 per cent in the party-list vote, followed by the Communist Party with 14.2 per cent and the Liberal Democratic Party with 10.7 per cent, although the poll excluded electronic and military votes. The election and the accompanying attacks have added another layer of tension to the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict, with Moscow now warning that its military response will become more intense.