The capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and shot down, 450 of which were aimed at Moscow.
He accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with a tightly controlled three-day election that is set to tighten the country’s president Vladimir Putin’s 26-year grip on power.
“The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed,” he said on Telegram.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the strikes, saying: “Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.”
“One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” he posted on X.
Moscow regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov said on the social media platform that at least two people were killed – a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man – in two separate locations.
A fire triggered by a drone crashing into a 21-storey building also led to 400 people being evacuated, Vorobyov said. He did not specify the drones’ origin.
A Ukrainian drone strike also hit a bus in part of the country’s southern Kherson region controlled by Moscow, killing two people, including a member of the electoral commission, according to the officials there. (AFP)
