Ukraine hits Moscow in largest drone strike since war bega

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.

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.”