Russian President Vladimir Putin framed the vote as a referendum on his ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Published On 20 Sep 2026
Russia’s first wartime parliamentary elections have concluded, with the ruling United Russia party projected to triumph in a tightly controlled vote.
The Kremlin sought to use the vote—the first parliamentary election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022—to demonstrate popular backing for the war and legitimize its military operations.
Russian authorities accused Ukraine of attempting to disrupt the voting process after Kyiv launched hundreds of drones at Moscow and other regions, described by the TASS state news agency as the largest attack of its kind since the war began.
The Sunday drone strikes killed at least three people in the Moscow region and two others in the Russian-held portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region, including an election official, according to regional officials and the election commission.
Russian officials also reported cyberattacks on the country’s electronic voting systems and communication lines during the polls, but maintained that the electoral process proceeded largely without incident.
Preliminary results placed the United Russia party comfortably ahead, and Russia’s Central Election Commission reported a voter turnout of 56.66 percent at the close of polls.
Official preliminary results and the final turnout figures are anticipated Monday morning.
Voting in Russian-held Ukrainian areas
The election, which commenced on Friday for 111 million eligible voters, encompassed residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed following the onset of the war but still does not fully control, along with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Kyiv authorities denounced the voting in the occupied territories as illegal and urged foreign governments not to recognize the outcome. The European Union condemned the action on Friday as a “blatant violation of international law”.
Voters cast two separate ballots: half of the 450-seat lower house was filled by selecting political parties from the ballot, while the remaining seats were contested in single-member constituencies where voters chose individual candidates.
The ruling Kremlin party, United Russia, is widely expected to retain its dominant control of the State Duma. Several smaller “systemic opposition” parties that align with Putin’s views on all major issues are also anticipated to maintain their presence.
An extensive state media campaign and strict control over the election process—marking the absence of genuine opposition—virtually guarantee the Kremlin’s continued dominance of Russian politics, even amid mounting economic costs and escalating Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside the country.
The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that publicly criticized the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court. It fielded only a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races.
Furthermore, several anti-war politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee abroad prior to the campaign.
Russia did not invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the organization of “double standards” for its criticism of Russia.
