FOCUS — Russia’s parliamentary elections end under the shadow of a massive Ukrainian drone attack

MOSCOW, 20 September /ATSH-DPA/ – Russia’s parliamentary elections, the first held since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ended today under the shadow of massive Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow.

Russian officials accused Kyiv of trying to disrupt the electoral process.

The elections, held over three days from Friday to today, are expected to deliver another landslide victory to the United Russia party, which leads the country under President Vladimir Putin.

Democracy-monitoring organizations, Western governments and Kremlin opponents have described the elections as neither free nor fair.

The chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said the air attacks were aimed at disrupting the vote for the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

She also accused Ukraine of cyberattacks on Russia’s electronic voting system, but said the efforts to disrupt the process had failed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the attack as “the largest enemy drone attack on Moscow,” saying that 450 drones heading toward the capital had been intercepted.

However, several drones reached the grounds of an oil refinery in Moscow, where fire and thick clouds of smoke were reported.

At least three people were killed in the wider Moscow region and 20 others were injured, according to Russian authorities.

Damage was reported to residential buildings, while hundreds of residents were evacuated.

Restrictions were also imposed at all four of Moscow’s airports.

Ukraine confirms the attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the attacks on the Moscow region, saying that one of Russia’s main oil industry facilities and a logistics hub had been hit.

According to him, Ukrainian forces used several types of weapons, including drones and “Flamingo” and “Pelican” missiles.

Ukrainian media have described the “Pelican” as a ballistic missile developed by the Ukrainian company “Fire Point.”

The company has said the missile has a range of up to 200 kilometers, a distance that would not be enough to reach Moscow from Ukrainian-controlled territory.

If confirmed, this would be the first known use of this weapon.

President Zelensky also mentioned an attack on a facility in the Voronezh region, on the border with Ukraine, and called on Moscow to end the war.

Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said 43 drones had been intercepted over the region.

Two people were injured, while homes and vehicles were damaged.

Ukraine has intensified attacks on targets deep inside Russian territory, especially on oil infrastructure that provides significant revenue for Moscow’s war effort.

Voting process ends

More than 110 million Russians were eligible to vote over the three days of the Duma elections.

According to the Central Election Commission, turnout had passed 50 percent by the early afternoon hours today.

In the 2021 parliamentary elections, official turnout was 51.7 percent.

The first results were expected after the last polling stations closed at 8:00 p.m. local time, in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

The Kremlin-loyal United Russia party is expected to secure a clear victory.

After the exclusion of opposition forces, all ten parties on the ballot are considered close to the Kremlin and supportive of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russian elections have long been criticized for a lack of free and fair competition.

The anti-war Yabloko party, which was excluded from the elections, and other groups reported alleged violations as early as the first day of voting.

Among them were mentions of observers being prevented from entering polling stations, pressure on state employees to vote, and claims of ballot-box stuffing.

Some voters said they had not received ballot papers and had been registered for electronic voting without their knowledge.

Russia accuses Ukraine of attacks in occupied territories

Pamfilova also accused Ukraine of violence aimed at disrupting voting in Russian-occupied territories.

She said two people, including a member of a local election commission, were killed when a drone hit a bus in the part of the Kherson region controlled by Russia.

President Putin had earlier accused Ukraine of killing an election official in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

These claims could not be independently verified.

Despite Kyiv’s protests, voting took place in the Russian-controlled parts of the annexed Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine does not recognize the results, while the international community considers holding elections in occupied Ukrainian territory a violation of international law.