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The Kremlin has vowed to “intensify” strikes on Kyiv after accusing Ukraine of trying to disrupt Russia 's state election with the largest drone attack of the war so far. President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party was comfortably ahead in early results on Monday following a vote in which observers were turned away and genuine opposition banned. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded across the wider Moscow region, local governor Andrei Vorobyov said. Monday's initial results showed United Russia comfortably ahead with 57.5 per cent of the vote. Other parties that were likely to return to the State Duma have all publicly supported Putin's leadership.
The Kremlin has tried to cast the parliamentary election as a test of support for its war in Ukraine, even as critics say there are few available avenues for genuine dissent. Ukraine fires over 1,000 drones at Russia in largest attack since war began The election's last day came against a backdrop of a major wave of Ukrainian attacks. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded across the wider Moscow region, local Governor Andrei Vorobyov said. Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire at a warehouse following a Russian drone strike in Kyiv region on 20 September 2026 (AFP/Getty) The election follows a summer of Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on oil refineries that triggered a widespread fuel crisis. Warehouses belonging to online retailers Wildberries and Ozon also were attacked.
Those attacks have exacerbated economic problems and brought the war home for millions. 21 September 2026 05:30 Russian opposition abroad holds protests Russia’s exiled opposition, including the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, called on anti-war Russians to cast their votes at noon on Sunday. Thousands of Russians living in Armenia took part in the vote, lining up outside the Russian Embassy in the capital, Yerevan. Some of them joined the “Noon for a Peaceful Russia” anti-war demonstration, holding anti-war and anti-Putin posters.
Mark Podberezin, a journalist, said members of the election commission in Yerevan made remarks that felt like “outright intimidation". He said he had heard comments "along the lines of, ‘You’ll have to return to Russia sooner or later, keep that in mind.’” Voters line-up to cast ballots during the last day of the parliamentary election in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, 20 September 2026 (AP) Lidiya Klimenko said she did not think her vote would have any real impact. The most useful thing to do, she said, was “to see other people who are also against the war, to be together in a shared cause”.
In Germany, voters cast their ballots at the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Andrei Pivovarov, a dissident and former head of the Open Russia group, addressed a protest gathered outside the building. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 05:15 Issues with electronic voting in Moscow The head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, on Sunday said that the electronic voting system in Moscow was targeted by cyberattacks.
She blamed one of the “systemic parties” – meaning one of those taking part in the vote, without specifying which one. SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet, said on Sunday that voters were reporting glitches in the electronic registry systems at polling stations across Moscow. People were not issued paper ballots and instead were asked to vote via an electronic terminal, the outlet said on Telegram.
Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggested the supposed breakdown of the system used to issue paper ballots in Moscow may have been deliberate, aimed at pushing voters toward electronic voting. “Demand a paper ballot!” he wrote on X on Sunday. Lines formed outside polling stations as many voters refused to vote electronically.
Having urged supporters to spoil party-list ballots, Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov cast a ballot in St Petersburg on Sunday, covered in bright green writing declaring “For freedom," “For peace,” and “Yabloko”. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 05:00 Russia turns away independent European observers from polling exercise Russia didn’t invite observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the Russian foreign ministry accusing the body of “double standards” for its criticism of Russia. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly president Pere Joan Pons said that the decision was a breach of Russia’s commitments as a member state of the organisation.
Yabloko, the liberal opposition party, reported that one of its observers lost consciousness while being arrested by police at a St Petersburg polling station on Saturday, after officials accused him of trying to “disrupt the elections” and called police. Members of a local electoral commission empty a ballot box before counting votes after the closure of a polling station (Reuters) The parties reported violations including sealed ballot boxes being opened, doors to polling stations not being secured overnight, and a refusal to issue paper ballots. The claims could not be independently verified.
At one polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 04:45 Opposition sidelined as observers report violations The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticise the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court, and only has a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races. Additionally, some anti-war politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee abroad ahead of the campaign.
Lyceum students line up to sing the Russian national anthem during polls opening at a polling station organised on the lyceum's grounds during Russia's parliamentary election in Donetsk (AFP/Getty) Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticised some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 04:30 Kremlin long expected to keep control The Kremlin had called the parliamentary election, the first since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to showcase popular support for the war and legitimise its action. It has sought to avoid political risks by stamping out any dissent.
A massive state media campaign and tight control over the election in the absence of genuine opposition all but assure the Kremlin will keep tight control of Russian politics amid mounting economic costs and increasing Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside the country. A voter casts a ballot during the last day of the parliamentary election in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, 20 September 2026 (AP) Voters cast two separate ballots, filling half of the Duma’s 450 seats by selecting political parties listed on the ballot. The rest are contested in single-seat constituencies, with voters choosing individual candidates.
The main Kremlin party, United Russia, has been widely expected to retain its overwhelming control of the lower house, the State Duma. The early results showed four other parties that almost always vote for Kremlin initiatives returning to the State Duma. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 04:19 Putin's party dominating tightly-controlled wartime vote in Russia Russia’s ruling party United Russia was dominating early results in the country’s first wartime parliamentary election, according to the first returns released on Monday from a sham election where all genuine opponents of president Vladimir Putin had been barred from running.
The vote, which is all but certain to cement the Kremlin’s dominance, began on Friday for 111 million eligible voters and ended Sunday. The balloting included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began, but still doesn’t fully control, as well as those in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, a move Kyiv denounced as illegal and the European Union described as a “blatant violation of international law”. With some 58 per cent of the precincts counted, United Russia had nearly 58 per cent of the vote for the 225 deputies apportioned by party lists, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.
Another 225 lawmakers will be chosen in single-seat races, and United Russia also was poised to win most of those. Namita Singh 21 September 2026 04:12 Exclusive: Drones targeting UK military sites nearly every day as threat from Putin grows Rogue drones are targeting Britain’s military bases almost daily, leaving the UK vulnerable to growing threats from Russia and Iran , The Independent can reveal. Some 340 security incidents involving drones were reported at or near Ministry of Defence sites in the year to August 2026, data obtained under freedom of information laws show.
In 2025, there were a total of 250 incidents recorded – double the 126 recorded the year before. Experts warn the alarming increase reflects the government’s woeful lack of security and unreadiness to combat hostile threats at a time of intense escalation from Vladimir Putin , as well as aggression from Iran. Harriette Boucher reports: Alex Croft 21 September 2026 03:00 Ukraine urges other countries not to recognise the vote Authorities in Kyiv have called the voting in those territories illegal and urged foreign governments and international organisations not to recognize the election.
They warned Ukrainians that taking part in organising the vote could carry criminal liability. A coalition of nine Ukrainian human rights groups called on residents of the Russia-held territories to stay away from the polls. “We urge residents of the temporarily occupied territories, above all, to protect their lives and health and to look after their own safety,” the coalition said in a statement.
“Holding Russian elections in the temporarily occupied territories is an attempt to use the electoral process to legitimize the Russian occupation and the attempted annexation of Ukrainian territories.” European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said the voting in Russian-held regions represented "another blatant violation of international law. The European Union does not, and will never recognize either the holding of these, so-called elections, sham elections, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or their results.” Alex Croft 21 September 2026 01:30 Alex Croft 21 September 2026 00:00
Source: The Independent
