Al Jazeera and Kyiv Post cover 18 September attacks as Russia's wartime Duma vote opened. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote that more than 350 drones headed at the capital. Kyiv Post says Sochi's mayor ordered voters underground and halted polling after a drone alert, with one drone reported to have damaged a polling station. Russia claimed hundreds of drones downed as voting continued.
Al Jazeera says polls opened in Kamchatka and Chukotka for the 450-seat Duma, due to close at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, with Moscow also organising ballots in occupied parts of Ukraine. Kyiv Post frames Friday as a national election day run under drone threat. Both treat the strikes on the vote, not as a separate theatre. Those figures and proper names sit in that same-day article and attach to this event only.[1], [2]
Al Jazeera quotes Mayor Sergei Sobyanin: most of more than 350 drones were destroyed on an outer perimeter, with 64 shot down as they neared the city. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said overnight strikes hit the Yaroslavl oil refinery and a military airfield in Rostov. Kyiv Post says Russia claimed 629 drones downed as the State Duma vote proceeded. Those figures and proper names sit in that same-day article and attach to this event only.[1], [2]
Kyiv Post reports the Sochi mayor's office on 18 September warned residents to take cover, shutting polling sites in the city. Voting was ordered underground. One drone reportedly damaged a polling station. Broader strikes, in that account, hit election sites, killed a collaborator in occupied Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson went dark. Al Jazeera's Moscow-centred drone wave is the same day's air picture. Those figures and proper names sit in that same-day article and attach to this event only.[2], [1]
