Ukraine fires new homemade Pelican ballistic missile in largest attack on Moscow yet - as fears grow across Europe that Putin is preparing to attack
Ukraine has fired a new homemade ballistic missile at Russia in the country's largest attack on Moscow since the start of the war.
On Sunday night, the final day of the Russian election, Ukraine struck an oil refinery on the outskirts of the capital as Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the 'strength' of Kyiv's 'long-range capabilities' after Pelican's involvement in the attack.
Pelican refers to the FP-7 ground-launched ballistic missile that was developed in Ukraine by defence technology company Fire Point, The Telegraph reports.
Fire Point is a Ukrainian firm that develops UAV and missile systems for 'modern precision warfare'.
FP-7 completed testing earlier this month and its involvement in last night's oil refinery bombardment marks the new system's first publicly confirmed combat deployment.
The missiles have a maximum range of 200km (124 miles) with an accuracy of 13m.
But it comes amid growing fears across Europe that Vladimir Putin is preparing to attack Nato territory.
Sharing footage of the attack from Sunday night, Mr Zelensky said in a social media post: 'Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.
Plumes of smoke rise from fires (right) at an oil refinery following what the authorities say is a Ukrainian drone strike in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia, September, 20, 2026
Smoke blankets Moscow following a strike on an oil refinery
The latest Ukrainian strikes started fires across the Moscow region
'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.
'The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen, and Pelican.'
He added: 'I thank everyone who is strengthening Ukraine's long-range capabilities.'
Meanwhile, Ukraine appears to be scaling up its use of ballistic missiles as Fire Point's CEO Iryna Terekh said on September 10 during a speech at a defence conference that a longer ranged FP-9 system was 'currently undergoing flight tests'.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, claimed Russia had come under attack from more than 1,600 drones on Sunday and accused Ukraine of attempting to 'disrupt' the elections.
He added that 450 drones targeting the city were shot down but said a number of them reached the oil refinery, with one destroying a nearby apartment.
Two people were killed as Ukraine and Russia continue to attack each other's energy infrastructure – despite an announcement by US President Donald Trump on Monday that they had agreed to stop.
Volodymyr Zelensky thanked defence partners for 'strengthening Ukraine's long-range capabilities'
Two people were killed in the latest attack
A view shows a damaged multi-storey apartment building following a drone attack in Kotelniki in the Moscow region on September 20, 2026
People gather outside a damaged residential building following what authorities described as a Ukrainian drone strike, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Sofyino settlement in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region, Russia, September, 20, 2026
Ukraine's Pelican deployment on Sunday comes amid growing fears that Mr Putin could be planning to launch attacks on Nato countries.
Senior intelligence officials across the continent are increasingly concerned that Moscow could soon attempt to deliberately test Nato's resolve, with one security chief warning that the danger could materialise in a matter of 'months, not years'.
The alarming assessment comes as European governments grapple with what they say is a growing campaign of Russian sabotage and provocation designed to frighten populations, fracture the alliance and weaken support for Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has told lawmakers that intelligence assessments suggest Russia could launch drones or missiles at Nato territory in the coming months in an attempt to demonstrate that the alliance's crucial Article 5 mutual-defence guarantee is 'more theoretical than practical'.
French President Emmanuel Macron described Mr Tusk's warning as 'sound and well-documented' and on Friday summoned political party leaders and candidates for France's 2027 presidential election to an emergency meeting in Paris, where Russia's growing threat was among the subjects discussed.
But one of the starkest warnings came from Michal Koudelka, who heads the Czech Republic's BIS security service.
Mr Koudelka told The Guardian that Moscow's next move could go beyond the increased drone activity already unnerving European capitals and potentially involve a small-scale incursion into Nato territory bordering Russia.
'It's possible. It could involve a limited incursion, false-flag provocations, a massive influence campaign,' he said in a rare interview at the agency's Prague headquarters.
Asked about the potential timeframe, Mr Koudelka said such a scenario could unfold in 'months, not years', although he stressed that 'a lot of people are doing everything they can to make sure this doesn't happen'.
Meanwhile the head of Latvia's state security service, the VDD, Normunds Mežviets, said: 'It's still an open question if they have direct and concrete plans or if it's just within the context of their overall attempts to spread fear and uncertainty in western society.'
But he told the newspaper that 'we don't see indications of an imminent attack'.
And secretary general of Estonia's foreign ministry, Jonatan Vseviov said there has been 'panic on social media' in recent days over the possibility of a Russian attack.
He added that until there is 'reason to fear an attack', people should 'keep calm, carry on and support Ukraine'.
The latest attack from Ukraine comes as Russia entered its third and final day of a parliamentary election that Mr Putin has cast as a test of support for his country's war in Ukraine.
'The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections,' Sobyanin said. 'The adversary failed to achieve this.'
A major warehouse in a logistics hub in the nearby town of Sofyino was also struck, killing a woman and injuring five others – including two children.
Elsewhere in the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky district, an elderly man was killed by a downed drone.
Images showed how thick black smoke blanketed part of the city as it billowed from the site of the Moscow refinery.
The scale of any damage to the facility was not immediately known, while all four of Moscow's main airports faced major disruption as the capital's airspace was closed.
The Moscow plant, which has been targeted multiple times, processed 11.6 million metric tons of oil in 2024, producing 2.9 million tons of gasoline and 3.2 million tons of diesel, the latest available data shows.
Ukraine has not commented on the attacks and both sides say they do not target civilians.
In the wider Moscow region, in addition to the two deaths, 400 people, including 70 children, were evacuated from a 21-storey apartment block in the Ramenskoye district, and many homes were damaged, said Governor Andrei Vorobyov.
Russia's electoral chief said on Sunday that there had been over 1,000 waves of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting Russian election infrastructure in recent days.
DDoS attacks involve overwhelming a system with internet traffic so that it is unable to function normally.
'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,' the chair of Russia's Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Russians began three days of voting on Friday in the country's first wartime parliamentary election.
The State Duma vote is expected to see the ruling United Russia party easily retain its dominance in a political system critics say does not tolerate dissent.
The Kremlin is likely to present the outcome as evidence of public backing for Mr Putin's policies and for the war, Europe's deadliest conflict since the Second World War, now in its fifth year with no sign of ending soon.
Most anti-war candidates were barred from the ballot.
Russian President Vladimir Putin votes online in the parliamentary election in Moscow, Russia, September 18, 2026
Citizens cast their ballots at a polling station in Moscow, Russia, on September 19, 2026, during the country's parliamentary elections
Those who did run from the liberal Yabloko party, which has polled in the single digits in recent years but hoped to tap into war fatigue, said they feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures before the vote for comments about the conflict deemed illegal by authorities.
Discrediting the army or spreading what authorities regard as fake news are punishable by lengthy prison sentences.
In a small act of defiance, Yabloko's leader, Nikolai Rybakov, demonstratively spoiled his ballot paper, writing his party's name and the slogan 'For peace'.
The Kremlin says national unity and some censorship are necessary during what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
It casts the conflict as part of an existential struggle with a hostile West and says Ukrainian intelligence services and other enemies are stepping up efforts to stir unrest inside Russia.
Russian electoral officials said on Saturday that an online voting system in Moscow had come under cyber-attack.
Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, has dismissed the Russian vote as a 'pseudo election'.
However, Russia's ruling party that supports Vladimir Putin is set for a landslide victory in the country's first wartime parliamentary elections, widely regarded as a 'sham'.
The pro-war United Russia party is projected by early counting to take around 58 per cent of the vote, with its closest rival the Communist Party on track for just 14 per cent.
Polls closed to the 111 million-strong electorate on Sunday just hours after Ukraine fired more than 1,000 drones into Russia, including an 'unprecedented' number at the capital Moscow.
Voting stretched to Russian-held areas of Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to urge foreign governments against recognising the outcome.
Mr Putin was not on the ballot paper because these elections were for the state Duma – Russia's parliament – rather than the presidential seat.
He is also not a member of United Russia, but he served as its leader between 2008 and 2012.
The current leader is Mr Putin's ally, former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.
He has already vowed to implement the dictator's will in the new parliament.
The result of the election – which ran across three days at a turnout of 56 per cent – was never truly in doubt because the Kremlin exerts tight control over the voting process.
They are broadly similar to the results of the last election in 2021, despite growing unease over the war among civilians.
Russian elections have for decades been marred by corruption allegations, and this year's was no different.
Members of a local electoral commission count the ballots at the end of parliamentary elections at a polling station in Podolsk, Moscow region
A man casts his ballot during voting at a polling station
Evidence emerged that some ballots had been pre-marked to force votes of United Russia.
There were also reports of ballot stuffing, where a voter casts more than their one permitted paper.
Credible opposition is virtually non-existent in Russia, with critics of the current regime barred, jailed or exiled – particularly if they begin to gain political traction.
Human rights groups estimate more than 2,000 people are currently locked up for political reasons.
Russia's only overtly anti-war party Yabloko – meaning Apple – had been banned from standing to prevent any criticism of Mr Putin's military policy, but some of its candidates contested individual constituencies.
Voting was also organised in war-torn regions of Ukraine that have been invaded by Russia since the outbreak of war in February 2022.
In the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, election officials reported 82 per cent, with similarly high figures in the Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The European Union on Friday called the action a 'blatant violation of international law'.
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