Ukraine on Tuesday hit the Moscow region in series of drone strikes that killed one woman, destroyed dozens of homes and forced some 50 flights to be rerouted from the Russian capital, reporting by Reuters confirmed.
The attack on Moscow was reportedly the largest drone strike levied by Kyiv at Russia since the war began more than two and half years ago.
Russia, which has heavily relied on drones and missiles in its assault against Ukraine and routinely pummels Kyiv with a barrage of aerial assaults, said it destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region along with another 124 across eight other regions.
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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested the attacks levied at the Russian capital, which has a population of some 21 million, were not legitimate military targets.
"There is no way that nighttime strikes on residential neighborhoods can be associated with military action," he told reporters. "The Kyiv regime continues to demonstrate its nature.
"They are our enemies and we must continue the special military operation to protect ourselves from such actions," he said, perpetuating the term used by Moscow to describe its invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv has not yet commented on the overnight strike, but reportedly said Russia attacked it with some 46 drones, 38 of them destroyed by Ukrainian defenses.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he will travel to Ukraine along with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy to meet with their Ukrainian counterpart and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later this week.
"It’s a critical moment to what is an intense, all-fighting season," Blinken told reporters. "With Russia continuing to escalate its aggression – aggression against civilians, against critical infrastructure, and, of course, against Ukrainian forces – we see it ramping up its attacks on cities, people, in particular, targeting the energy infrastructure."
Blinken pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "playbook" for weaponizing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure amid the cold winter months, as he has done the last two years, and said this upcoming trip reflects the U.S. and NATO’s commitment to ensuring Ukraine can defend itself against Russian attacks.
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It is unclear what specifically will be addressed during the Blinken-Lammy visit this week, though Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal echoed concerns addressed by the U.S. secretary of state on Tuesday and said some 85% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is protected against anticipated Russian attacks, reported the Kyiv Independent.
Ukrainians across the country, including in Kyiv, have been living with intermittent blackouts for months following Russia’s intense campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in March – during which a reported 80% of thermal generating capacity of the nation’s largest private energy company, DTEK, was damaged or destroyed.
Energy officials in June were sounding the alarm that Ukrainians may only have access to electricity for as little as six hours a day during this upcoming winter, depending on how much of the grid can be repaired.
Shmyhal on Tuesday did not specify how much of the grid has been restored or what lengths of power outages Ukrainians may be forced to endure this winter.
Instead, he highlighted the efforts being made to secure Ukraine’s energy industry and said the Ukrainian government had allocated some $461 million to protect energy facilities while an additional $315 million had been provided by foreign allies.
