Ukrainian forces deliberately stockpiled drones for a large-scale attack on the Moscow Region timed to coincide with Russia’s State Duma elections, according to military analyst and air defense historian Yury Knutov.

Knutov said the latest strike was roughly twice as powerful as the previous major attack carried out overnight on September 18. He argued that the scale of the operation, along with attacks approaching from several directions, including the east, indicated that drones had been accumulated in advance. In his view, the operation was primarily political and was intended to disrupt the elections.

The analyst also said Ukraine and its Western allies could significantly expand production of attack drones, allowing similar mass raids to be carried out more frequently.

Knutov referred to information suggesting that Ukraine and its allies plan to produce seven million drones by the end of the year, including FPV models. He said such production volumes could lead to a rapid increase in the number of UAVs used in individual attacks.

On the morning of September 20, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the drone assault on the capital region as the largest to date. He said Russian air defenses had intercepted more than 1,600 drones since September 19, including 450 near Moscow.

The Russian Defense Ministry later reported that air defenses had destroyed 1,951 Ukrainian drones over a 24-hour period, which Russian media described as a record daily figure.