At least two people were killed and a major oil refinery was damaged following a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that Russian air defenses intercepted more than 1,600 drones since Saturday, with 450 of those directed toward the capital. The strikes occurred as Russia concluded its three-day parliamentary elections.
Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed the deaths of a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man in separate incidents. A drone impact on a 21-storey residential building caused a fire, necessitating the evacuation of 400 residents. Sobyanin stated that emergency services were deployed to the Moscow oil refinery to address damage caused by the strikes. He characterized the operation as an attempt to disrupt the electoral process, asserting that the effort was unsuccessful.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the strikes, stating that long-range responses had impacted key Russian oil and logistics facilities. He described the targets as vital components of the Russian war effort.
In a separate incident, the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission reported that a drone strike on a civilian bus in the Russian-occupied Kherson region killed two people, including an election official, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Simultaneously, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian forces launched 138 drones across Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian air force stated that 101 of these drones were intercepted. In the Kyiv region, Governor Tymur Tkachenko reported that four people were killed, including three children. The strikes damaged 31 sites across five districts, affecting homes, industrial buildings, and agricultural infrastructure.
Article source: www.aljazeera.com | Image credit: www.aljazeera.com