₦airaland Forum

Ukraine has hit Moscow with what local authorities said was the largest ever drone attack on the capital, setting a major oil refinery ablaze and killing at least two people, as voting in Russia’s stage-managed parliamentary elections entered its final day.

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down 450 drones as they approached the capital on Saturday night, calling the attack “unprecedented”.

Sobyanin claimed the attack was “clearly planned to disrupt the elections”, adding that “the enemy did not succeed”.

Several drones hit the Moscow Refinery in the south of the capital, one of Russia’s largest.

Videos on social media showed a drone exploding into the refinery, with plumes of black smoke shrouding the sunrise, and several areas of the facility on fire. A nearby power station, warehouse and market were also hit.

Drones also hit residential buildings near the refinery and at least 11 suburban towns in the surrounding region, authorities said. Two people died in the attacks and a further 20 people were injured, including three children, according to Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region.

Flights were grounded at all three of Moscow’s main airports. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have shot down a total of 1,110 drones across the country overnight.

Kyiv and Moscow have continued striking each other’s energy infrastructure throughout the week despite Donald Trump’s claim on Monday that the warring sides had agreed to halt such attacks, which the US president blamed for the surge in global diesel prices. Trump has not commented on the attacks, which Russia and Ukraine continued within hours of his statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media that Ukraine had used domestically produced drones and cruise missiles to target facilities he said earned “billions of dollars that support the war machine”.

Zelenskyy said a plan to de-escalate the strikes on energy and food export infrastructure was “on the table” but required “political will”.

Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire of attacks on energy and other infrastructure ahead of what is expected to be a major campaign of air strikes against Ukraine this winter. Russian President Vladimir Putin expects the strikes to strengthen Moscow’s position and help extract concessions from Ukraine, according to people familiar with his thinking.

Polls in the three-day parliamentary elections, the first since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, were set to close on Sunday evening. Turnout at noon local time on Sunday was 48 per cent, according to the central election commission.

The vote has proceeded without drama even by Russian standards as an array of Kremlin-run, pro-war parties compete for seats in parliament. Russia’s supreme court removed Yabloko, the only party that had expressed even mild opposition to the war, from the ballot last month.

Regional authorities said a drone destroyed a vehicle in the north-eastern region of Sumy, killing four people.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 138 drones overnight, half of them jet-powered models that pose a greater challenge for air defences.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, had brought down jet-powered drones using a new interceptor drone

allen113:
This Zelenskyy funny. He has refuse to conduct election in Ukraine using the war as an excuse. But the same Russia his at war with is conducting election in the midst of the war.

Baba dn test power see say e sweet, him no wan step down 😂

allen113:
This Zelenskyy funny. He has refuse to conduct election in Ukraine using the war as an excuse. But the same Russia his at war with is conducting election in the midst of the war.

Baba dn test power see say e sweet, him no wan step down 😂

Botragelad:
.
Source:
https://www.ft.com/content/2b6f1b4b-4010-4e95-8b5c-dfb2e32cd7ae?syn-25a6b1a6=1

allen113:
This Zelenskyy funny. He has refuse to conduct election in Ukraine using the war as an excuse. But the same Russia his at war with is conducting election in the midst of the war.

Baba dn test power see say e sweet, him no wan step down 😂

Botragelad:
Look at the kind of trouble Putin has dragged Russia into. While he was busy feeding satellite imagery to the Houthis to strike Saudi assets, Ukraine was planning to turn Moscow into a burning ground, and hours ajo thousands of drones have flew into Russia, hitting facilities across the country. Who would’ve believed it?

Now you understand Ukraine isn’t some weakling that can be pushed around. Start a war, fail to end it for years, only for the “opps” to start destroying your country the way you destroyed theirs.

@Obedience4, kindly take it upon yourself if you can to show the world how ukraine is doing on the battlefield.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

9jamustbegreat:
If a prophet had told me before now that the war between Russia and Ukraine would have lasted this far, I would have called the prophet a fake prophet. This war has really shown that Ukraine is not a push over.

9jamustbegreat:
If a prophet had told me before now that the war between Russia and Ukraine would have lasted this far, I would have called the prophet a fake prophet. This war has really shown that Ukraine is not a push over.

zoghys:
Am not a fan of Putin and will never be but I expect a harsh and decisive retaliation from Moscow.

Emmamay10:
Everywhere don red. Putin should stop disgracing himself and his fellow countrymen. Putin should eat the humble pie and negotiate. This war is becoming embarrassing.

TheWebbers:
Killing two people?

Shior. That doesnt look like something serious.

Na death toll be real scores for war.

malali:
The obsession with the Ukraine war needs to stop.

37 people did not die in Ukraine.

37 people died in Niger State, Nigeria.

Nigeria is not at war with another country. Yet 37 Nigerians have lost their lives in Niger State, and the President is yet to address the nation on this tragedy.

This is not a minor incident that should disappear from the news cycle.

The President’s representative, the Acting President, should physically be in Minna—just about two hours from Abuja—to demonstrate that the Federal Government is present, paying attention and taking the loss of these lives seriously.

Thirty-seven people dying while in Federal Government custody is not a joke.

It demands answers.
It demands accountability.
And above all, it demands empathy.

When citizens die under the watch of the state, silence from the highest levels of government sends a troubling message about how much those lives matter.

The Nigerian people deserve more than press statements and official condolences after the fact.

They deserve to see their government show up.

Because 37 Nigerians are dead.
And the country should not have to beg its government to act like their lives mattered.

Nigeria must look inward too. 🇳🇬

Botragelad:
Look at the kind of trouble Putin has dragged Russia into. While he was busy feeding satellite imagery to the Houthis to strike Saudi assets, Ukraine was planning to turn Moscow into a burning ground, and hours ajo thousands of drones have flew into Russia, hitting facilities across the country. Who would’ve believed it?

Now you understand Ukraine isn’t some weakling that can be pushed around. Start a war, fail to end it for years, only for the “opps” to start destroying your country the way you destroyed theirs.

@Obedience4, kindly take it upon yourself if you can to show the world how ukraine is doing on the battlefield.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

allen113:
This Zelenskyy funny. He has refuse to conduct election in Ukraine using the war as an excuse. But the same Russia his at war with is conducting election in the midst of the war.

Baba dn test power see say e sweet, him no wan step down 😂

Kelklein:
Later they would exchange dead bodies.. 5000 to 150 🤔🤔🤔

What type of war is this one