War in Ukraine: Forbidden apples and drones on Moscow

“Imagine,” Moscow native Svetlana tells taz on the phone. "I was voting yesterday and then saw the following notice on the entrance door of the Moscow polling station: 'Attention! It is forbidden to enter the polling station with an apple. Persons who violate this must leave the polling station. The administration of the polling station. "

She had already seen similar notices on other public buildings in the past few weeks. This prohibition sign shows how Russian electoral commissions fear the “Yabloko” party – which means “apple” in German. Their lists are not even allowed to vote. The three-day elections to Russia's State Duma ended on Sunday. All observers assume that the Kremlin party “United Russia” will win. The only anti-war party “Yabloko” was only able to run direct candidates in some constituencies. Their lists were not allowed to vote nationwide.

No one had announced an event in which activists would come to the polling station with apples. “The authorities were afraid of an action that had not been announced at all,” explains Svetlana. She has time to make phone calls. Her flight to Istanbul on Sunday morning was postponed because of the Ukrainian drones. Now she hopes that she can fly in the evening.

On this Sunday of all elections, over a thousand Ukrainian drones attacked Russia. On the Facebook page of the social democratic Russian dissident Pavel Kudyukin, some visitors report attacks in their area. The Kapotnja refinery, just 15 kilometers from the Kremlin, also burned. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian news platform New Voice quotes President Zelensky as saying that in addition to numerous drones, the Ukrainian armed forces also used “Pelican” missiles over Russian territory.

The attack could prove to be a boomerang. Russian Duma deputy and member of the Defense Committee Andrei Kolesnik has announced a “very serious” retaliatory strike.

Meanwhile, it became known that Ukraine has a new prosecutor general. Following the resignation of Ruslan Kravchenko, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed the previous head of the Khmelnytsky region's public prosecutor's office, Anton Kowalski, as acting head of the General Prosecutor's Office.

Meanwhile, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations has appealed to Pope Leo XIV and international religious and humanitarian organizations for assistance to the population of the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in Kherson Oblast. The city is in a humanitarian blockade and is facing a famine catastrophe.

According to the church council, there may still be more than 6,000 people in Oleschky and the surrounding area, including around 200 children. The last delivery of food reached the area at the end of May. The residents now lacked food, drinking water and medicine. Electricity and gas supplies were out and a large part of the infrastructure was destroyed.