DOMINANT ANGLE
Seoul sees in this unprecedented drone strike a demonstration of offensive power that redraws the balance of power around the Russian vote, rather than a debate on the legitimacy of the vote.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that over 1,600 drones have been shot down since Saturday, including around 450 targeting the capital.
- 02
The United Russia party is credited with 57.5% of the vote according to the partial results from the Central Election Commission, the first legislative election since the start of the war.
- 03
Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the use of Ukrainian Flamingo and Pelican missiles and drones against Russian oil and logistics facilities.
ANALYSIS
Seoul, September 21, 2026. The South Korean press is covering the double Russian event of the weekend — the closing of the legislative election and the Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow — through the lens of military figures. The Korea Times and the Korea Herald, which are picking up Reuters dispatches, are leading their articles with the scope of the attack rather than the political controversy over the result.
According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, cited by the Korea Times, "more than 1,600 drones have been shot down on all fronts since Saturday. Among them, 450 were approaching Moscow." The capital's oil refinery, which supplies part of its fuel needs, was hit; columns of smoke were observed by Reuters witnesses. The human toll differs according to the articles: two deaths are mentioned in the Moscow region by the Korea Times and a first article by the Korea Herald, while a second article by the Korea Herald cites Governor Andrei Vorobyov reporting two killed and twenty injured, a 44-year-old woman and a 74-year-old man.
Volodymyr Zelensky justifies the operation by targeting, in his words, the "Russian war machine" with Ukrainian-designed missiles and drones, Flamingo and Pelican, directed against oil and logistics facilities. "These are billions of dollars that finance the war," he wrote, cited by the Korea Herald.
On the election side, the United Russia party is credited with 57.5% of the vote according to partial results, in what the Korea Herald describes as a "tightly controlled" political system where, according to critics cited in the article, no real dissent is tolerated. The communist, LDPR, New People, and Fair Russia parties, which systematically vote like United Russia on major texts, would obtain seats in the Duma despite a considerable gap. Dmitry Medvedev hailed a performance deemed worthy of the party. Russian electoral authorities also reported a cyberattack targeting the online voting system in Moscow on Saturday.
For the South Korean press, the technological scope of the raid, with over 1,000 drones fired in one night, combined with long-range missiles, is holding as much attention as the verdict of the polls, in a country itself engaged in a race for anti-drone capabilities against North Korea.
