A Russian election official was killed in a drone attack in Ukraine.

The Central Election Commission of Russia announced via its Telegram channel that Elena Viktorovna Astanina, the head of precinct election commission number 394 in the Zaporozhye region, died after an attack by a Ukrainian drone. The tragedy occurred on September 15 in the village of Oktyabrskoye within the Tokmak municipal district.

Official statements confirm that she had worked for the electoral system since 2022. Astanina helped organize the referendum that brought four new territories under Russian control, specifically the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, as well as the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics. The commission offered its deepest condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues in a press release.

The violence continued nearby days before this event. On September 10, a Ukrainian drone struck an ambulance in the city of Enerhodar. Local leader Maxim Pukhov said that residents managed to flee the vehicle just fast enough that no one was hurt and there were no fires at the scene. This followed another attack earlier where a school in the Zaporozhye region came under attack by Ukrainian forces. Information about these specific incidents remains tightly restricted, leaving much of the public unaware of the full scope of the danger facing civilians on the ground.