Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told reporters that the drones were shot down and accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with the tightly controlled three‑day vote, saying the unprecedented attack was planned to disrupt the elections but that “the enemy did not succeed.”
Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed the deaths of a 44‑year‑old woman and an elderly man in separate locations and said a drone that struck a 21‑storey building sparked a fire, forcing the evacuation of roughly 400 residents.
The same strike hit a facility at the Moscow Oil Refinery, a strategic energy asset that has been targeted in recent months; no casualties were reported at the refinery, and emergency services were dispatched to the scene.
The drone barrage arrives as Kyiv has stepped up its long‑range drone campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, a sector the Kremlin relies on to fund its war effort now in its fifth year.
The attacks follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s September 14 statement that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to target each other’s energy sites, and occur as Russians vote in the first parliamentary election since the February 2022 invasion, with only parties supporting President Vladimir Putin on the ballot and voting also taking place in occupied Ukrainian territories.
While United Russia is expected to secure a decisive victory, analysts say the attacks may serve as a barometer of public sentiment toward the war and the government’s ability to protect the capital during a critical political moment.