In a bombshell claim, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was ready to resume talks with Ukraine, until Kyiv struck polling booths in Moscow. Full results released Friday from Russia’s first wartime parliamentary election showed that the tightly orchestrated vote had further cemented the Kremlin’s overwhelming political control of the country. United Russia, the main Kremlin party, will get more than three-fourths of the seats in the State Duma, a record high, according to returns released by the Central Election Commission. Virtually any genuine opposition parties or candidates were excluded from running in the Sept. 18-20 election. A massive state media campaign and tight control over the voting process allowed the Kremlin to strengthen its political dominance despite Russia’s economic troubles and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks. Nearly 60% of the 111 million eligible voters turned out in the three-day balloting, the most for a parliamentary election in more than a decade. Authorities had spread the voting over three days and allowed online voting in some regions to boost participation. The United Nations was talking about peace. The war was answering with missiles and drones. Russian attacks killed at least eight civilians across Ukraine overnight, while Ukrainian long-range strikes hit infrastructure inside Russia, underscoring the widening gap between diplomatic efforts in New York and the reality on the battlefield. In northeastern Kharkiv region, six agricultural workers were killed and 12 wounded when a Russian strike hit a vegetable-sorting facility in Stara Hnylytsia, according to Ukrainian officials. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said the attack was part of a broader surge in Russian strikes that has killed at least 200 civilians and injured 1,234 since September 1. Kyiv was also struck, with two people reported killed and multiple civilian sites damaged. Ukrainian officials said the damage included residential, medical, commercial and transport infrastructure. Odesa and several other regions also came under attack. Sriram Ganesh is a Senior Copy Editor with nearly four years of experience in television news media. Having previously worked as a reporter and desk w... View More