Days before Russia’s election, Ukraine launched its biggest ever drone attack against Russia. On Wednesday, four drones set ablaze Rosneft’s largest refinery, 110 miles southeast of Moscow. Russian press say that Moscow’s forces downed about 60 drones overnight.

Earlier, waves of long range kamikaze drones hit eight regions, setting ablaze a major oil refinery, an oil tank farm, and a major power plant. Video clips of oily orange fires circulated all day on Russian social media. Almost simultaneously three Russian exile armed groups launched cross-border raids, attacking two Russian regions, Belgorod and Kursk.

On Wednesday, President Putin described the Ukrainian incursions as attempts to disrupt the election. He said on state television that Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend against threats to “the existence of the Russian state, our sovereignty and independence.” In the past, Russian officials dismissed the armed exile units as puppets of Ukraine’s military and America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

Russia’s defense ministry said it used jets, missiles, and artillery to repel attackers in seven border zones. The FSB, successor agency to the KGB, said 100 invaders were killed. Then, the government banned all posting or publication of Russian military movements. Later, authorities closed all schools at Kursk city, about 120 miles from the Ukraine border.

The governors of Kursk and Belgorod said drone attacks continued through Wednesday morning. A drone hit the Belgorod headquarters of the FSB and the three rebel groups jointly called on civilian residents to evacuate “immediately” from the two regional capitals to avoid casualties.

On the ground, the anti-Putin partisans tell reporters their fight is just beginning. The exiles say Tuesday’s  raids were timed to wake up Russians before this weekend’s stage managed election designed to give Vladimir Putin a fifth term.

“Russians will sleep freely, not be afraid of the doorbell, and will say what they think without fear,” promised one leader, Maksimillian Andronnikov of the Free Russia Legion. “Russians will vote for whom they want, not for whom they should. Russians will live freely.”

Also fighting are the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion, a group of ethnic Asian Russians. One Siberian Battalion soldier posted a selfie while lying in the woods, saying: “Guys, there’s no need to vote in the elections with ballots. Let’s vote with the caliber,” a reference to bullets. 

Video clips posted on Telegram show a tank with a rebel Russian flag moving down a rural road, a Soviet-era armored personnel carrier exploding in flames, and a villager taking cover amidst a sustained exchange of automatic weapons fire. In the last such cross-border incursion,  Russian exile soldiers were photographed using American-made equipment — Humvees and M1224 MaxxPro mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.

These highly visible attacks against European Russia, home to three quarters of Russia’s population, cut through Kremlin propaganda and send the message to voters that their authoritarian leader no longer protects the nation. From Saint Petersburg to Crimea, Russians can see that Ukraine runs roughshod over Mr. Putin’s red lines.

Compared to the border forays, the long range drone attacks undoubtedly did more damage – and were more visible to the rest of the country. Drones seemed destined to be a key facet of the war this year. Ukraine says its 10 drone factories aim to produce “thousands” of long range drones this year. 

Flying as far as 600 miles, these drones threaten industrial sites scattered up and down the Western portion of the world’s largest nation. A Russian news outlet in exile, Verstka, calculates that Ukraine’s new drones now put at risk 400,000 square miles of Russia — an area almost the size of California and Texas combined. 

The Ukrainian strategy is to launch at night a cloud of 15 drones, hoping to get one or two through Russian anti-aircraft defenses. On March 1, the Russian Defense Ministry reported shooting down 796 Ukrainian drones in the prior week.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian drones hit targets 1,200 miles apart. Damage included:

—  a huge fire that knocked out half of production at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, a Lukoil complex at Nizhny Novgorod, 500 miles northeast of Ukraine.

— a fire at Yuzhnaya, a gas-powered electricity plant at Saint Petersburg, that sent up a huge column of smoke visible all day long throughout Russia’s second largest city

— a fire at an oil tank farm at Oryol that burned for over 12 hours

— a drone was downed near Kirishi, home to Russia’s second largest oil refinery. 

In a sign that Ukraine is targeting airports,  Moscow’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, reported yesterday that  a drone was shot down near Zhukovsky Airport, one of Mocow’s four international air hubs. On Sunday, a drone was shot down near Saint Petersburg’s airport, Pulkovo.

In the conventional air war, Russia is not faring well. On Tuesday, another Il-76 transport plane crashed, for no known cause. Videos posted on social media show a right engine falling off the plane Seconds later, the plane crashed, near Ivanovo, 125 northeast of Moscow, killing all 15 aboard. It was the seventh Il-76 airlifter to crash or suffer damage since the war began two years ago. Also on Tuesday, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet crashed in Belgorod, a border region where Russian exiles were fighting below. 

More costly to the Russian war effort, Russia was forced to ground its Beriev A-50s after the Ukrainians downed two of the  AWACS-style planes over the last two months. Following up, Ukraine launched a  drone attack Saturday on the Beriev Aircraft Company at Taganrog, about 200 miles east of Ukraine’s front lines. Reportedly, the drones damaged one more A-50 that was   undergoing repairs at the company. Yesterday, the local governor reported that more drones were launched against Taganrog.

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia comes as Western support endures. On Tuesday, after an acrimonious debate, 65 percent of members of France’s National Assembly voted to approve a 10-year France-Ukraine security pact, including $3.2 billion in military aid this year for Ukraine. Also on Tuesday Denmark’s Defense Ministry announced that it would provide a new $337 million military aid package to Ukraine that includes Caesar self-propelled howitzers and ammunition. 

In Ukraine’s western neighbors, moves were afoot Tuesday to block Russia. In Slovakia, 5,000 demonstrated at Bratislava against the new government’s tilt toward Russia. AT Washington, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk met at the White House with President Biden.

Before the talks, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters that the United States will offer to sell 96 Apache attack helicopters to Poland and will approve a $2 billion direct foreign aid loan for Warsaw. 

“We must act before it literally is too late because, as Poland remembers, Russia won’t stop at Ukraine,” Mr. Biden said. “Putin will keep going, putting Europe and the United States and the entire free world at risk.”  

Mr. Sullivan said the Pentagon will use unanticipated cost savings from contracts to send $300 million worth of artillery ammunition to Ukraine this spring. For the big prize — $60 billion in Ukraine military aid already approved by the Senate — Democratic and Republican representatives are working on stratagems to allow a House vote in coming weeks.