Ukraine launched a massive wave of missiles and more than 1,000 drones against Russia, in what Moscow described as the largest attack of the war and an attempt to disrupt the country’s parliamentary elections.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes targeted the “dollars that support the war machine,” urging Russia to end its “brutal war” and pursue peace.
“Tonight in the Moscow region, our long-range responses were felt very acutely,” Zelenskyy wrote on X early Sunday. “One of the key enterprises of the Russian Federation’s oil industry and an aggressor’s logistics facility have been struck. These are billions of dollars that support the war machine.”
Flames and smoke rise from an oil refinery in southeast Moscow following a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Sept. 20, 2026. (AP)
Zelenskyy called the operation a forceful response to Russian aggression and said the strikes strengthened the case for the United States, Europe and the G7 to impose “new sanctions.”
“This week alone, Russia has launched more than 2,000 attack drones against us, most of them jet-powered, as well as 1,700 aerial bombs and 19 missiles of various types,” he wrote on X. “Ukraine is constantly looking for and finding ways to defend itself and respond to these attacks on life.
“It is important that our partners also look for and find ways to make Russia feel its war. Now is the right moment to take new sanctions steps against the aggressor and force peace through strength. The United States has the means to do this, Europe has them, and so does every G7 country. We are counting on new, strong steps.”
The Kremlin was concluding the third and final day of Russia’s parliamentary elections when the attacks occurred. Two people were killed and 20 others wounded, according to regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov.
Plumes of smoke rise from fires at an oil refinery following what authorities said was a Ukrainian drone strike in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 20, 2026. (Reuters/Stringer)
“The biggest attack by enemy drones has been repelled,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. “This unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses destroyed 1,110 Ukrainian drones across the country, including over Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.
Sobyanin said 450 drones were intercepted while heading toward Moscow. He added that the assault damaged the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building.
“Moscow must end its brutal war and choose peace instead of building layered rings of air defense at the expense of other regions,” Zelenskyy wrote in a second post on X. “Steps toward de-escalation are on the table – in energy and food security. What is needed is political will. I thank everyone who is strengthening Ukraine’s long-range capabilities. I am grateful to everyone who complements our long-range responses with responses through sanctions.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was continuing to repel Russian attacks. A Russian drone strike on a monastery in the Kherson region on Saturday killed a member of the clergy and wounded four others, he said.
An office building burns following a Russian drone attack in central Odesa, Ukraine, on Sept. 18, 2026. (Michael Shtekel/AP)
A separate Russian strike on Kyiv killed three children and their mother Saturday night, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional state administration.
Ukraine’s latest drone operation came on the final day of Russia’s first wartime parliamentary election, a vote held amid the near-total absence of opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s policies.
Russia also conducted voting in four Ukrainian regions it claimed after the war began but does not fully control, as well as in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.
Putin accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with the election, pointing to what he said was a Ukrainian strike that killed an election official at her home Tuesday in the Russian-controlled portion of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters could not independently confirm the details, and Kyiv offered no immediate comment.
In a televised address before the vote, Putin said the election would demonstrate public support for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
“Your choice, and your will, will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory, and love for our homeland, and that no one will succeed in dividing or intimidating us,” Putin said.
