Putin's Supporters Reacted Strangely To The Largest-scale Drone Attack On Moscow

• 21.09.2026, 7:50

Local residents are in shock.

During the record-breaking drone attack on Moscow on September 20, Russian authorities deliberately failed to warn residents of the danger—neither with sirens nor via text messages. According to analysts, the reason was a reluctance to disrupt voter turnout in the State Duma elections.

This was reported by Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

On September 20, the final day of voting in the State Duma elections, authorities in the Moscow Region did not sound air raid sirens or send SMS alerts about the threat of an attack—even though they had previously done so even during significantly smaller strikes.

At the same time, according to analysts’ observations, the authorities did resort to one of their typical countermeasures—restricting mobile communications—but without providing any official explanation for this move.

Residents of the Moscow Region complained on Governor Andrei Vorobyov’s Telegram channel about the lack of warnings—before comments on the channel were disabled.

According to the ISW, the Russian authorities apparently prioritized high voter turnout over public safety—even though Ukrainian forces had attacked strategic oil and logistics infrastructure and had made a point of not targeting polling stations or other electoral infrastructure.

As a reminder, following a record-breaking drone attack on Moscow, footage of fires at several sites in the Russian capital.

The Ukrainian side confirmed that the Moscow Oil Refinery had been hit—the facility caught fire, and it is one of Russia’s largest oil refineries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also reported that the following weapons were used during the operation: FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, “Palyanitsa,” Vendetta, “February,” “Bars,” “Flamingo,” “January,” and Pelican were used during the operation.