Russia vows revenge for election-day attacks as poll shows ruling party win

MOSCOW – Russia vowed on Sept 20 to “intensify” its strikes on Kyiv in response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow, as an exit poll showed the ruling United Russia party was on course to win tightly controlled parliamentary elections.

Ukraine fired waves of drones at Moscow and the surrounding region on the final day of voting, killing two people and setting an oil refinery ablaze, officials said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of attempting to “disrupt the democratic will of Russian citizens” and vowed a response.

An exit poll published by a state-run pollster showed United Russia on course to win 49.4 per cent of the vote, around the same it achieved in the previous election.

“In response to the Kyiv regime’s attacks on civilian targets within Russia, the Russian army will continue and intensify its high-accuracy strikes against military targets in Kyiv,” the Russian Defence Ministry said.

The attack was the largest on Moscow since the Kremlin launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022 and involved some 1,600 drones, 450 of which were aimed directly at the capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Images showed a gaping hole in a multi-storey apartment building on the outskirts of the capital, while another showed black smoke pouring from what appeared to be an oil refinery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the attacks, saying: “Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.”

He added on X: “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.”

At least two people were killed – a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man – in two separate locations, Moscow regional governor Andrey Vorobyov said. A fire triggered by a drone crashing into a 21-storey building also led to 400 people being evacuated, he added.

Ukraine has targeted Russian infrastructure with drones throughout the war, in retaliation for Russian bombardment of its own towns and cities.

First polls

The parliamentary vote, which decides all 450 seats in Russia’s State Duma, its Lower House, was the country’s first since launching its Ukraine offensive.

An exit poll by the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) showed United Russia winning 49.4 per cent, and the Communist Party and nationalist LDPR party with 14.2 per cent and 10.7 per cent, respectively.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, who chairs United Russia, said his party appeared to have “performed admirably”. “We must now put the President’s decisions into practice,” he was quoted as saying by RIA state news agency.

All other parties contesting supported the war and President Vladimir Putin, and the exit poll did not include electronic voting and military ballots. “For that reason, I believe United Russia’s result will be higher, whilst that of the opposition parties will be lower,” VCIOM director Valery Fedorov said.

Yabloko – a liberal party that had called for an end to the fighting – was barred from running its federal list by Russia’s Supreme Court, although its candidates remained on the ballot in some single-mandate constituencies.

Putin had urged Russians to take part, casting the vote as a show of support for Moscow’s troops and an “answer to those who want to weaken Russia”.

The Kremlin’s chief political opponents were driven into exile, while Putin’s main rival, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in 2024. Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya called on anti-war Russians to collectively cast their ballots at noon on Sept 20, a tactic that drew crowds in the 2024 presidential election.

In Berlin and London, AFP reporters saw dozens of opposition supporters gathered outside Russian embassy buildings in protest against the vote.

The first official results and turnout will be expected on the morning of Sept 21 local time.

Cyberattacks

As voting entered a final day, Russia’s electoral chief said there had been a wave of cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure.

Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia’s Central Election Commission, did not say who was responsible. The attacks appeared to have been carried out by “highly professional, well-coordinated groups using artificial intelligence tools,” she said.

“Over the past period, more than 1,000 waves of DDoS attacks have been recorded against infrastructure in Russia that is specifically involved in the electoral process,” Pamfilova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks involve overwhelming a system with internet traffic so that it is unable to function normally. She warned on Sept 19 that saboteurs had also severed communication lines in Russia’s far east, in an apparent attempt to frustrate the voting. AFP