Russia said one person was killed and eight hurt in a large-scale Ukrainian drone strike on Tuesday, as the United States accused Iran of supplying Moscow with missiles in what it called a “dangerous escalation” of its role in the war.
Russia’s military said it intercepted 144 drones fired by Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, including 20 over Moscow region, where three of the capital’s international airports halted all flights for several hours.
“There is no way that night-time strikes on residential neighbourhoods can be associated with military action,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, after Moscow officials confirmed news of civilian casualties in the Ramenskoye suburb of the city.
“The Kyiv regime continues to demonstrate its nature. They are enemies and we must continue the ‘special military operation’ to protect ourselves from such actions,” he added, using Russia’s official name for its full invasion of pro-western Ukraine.
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Ukraine has ramped up weapons production since Russia launched its all-out attack in February 2022 and plans to produce more than a million drones this year, while also receiving crucial arms supplies from western allies. Kyiv’s forces have inflicted frequent strikes on Russian air bases, weapons stores and energy facilities in recent months.
Russia, meanwhile, has pummelled Ukrainian towns, cities and critical infrastructure almost every night for nearly 2½ years, killing and injuring tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and forcing millions to flee their homes.
Russia’s army continues to gain ground in eastern Ukraine and claimed on Tuesday to have seized the town of Krasnohorivka and three villages in Donetsk region, as it pushes towards the small city of Pokrovsk, a Kyiv-held transport and logistics hub.
Ukraine’s military launched a surprise attack on Russia last month and now claims to control more than 1,000sq km of its Kursk border region, but the operation has not forced Moscow to transfer a large force away from the Donetsk front.
Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s security council and its defence minister until May, said Moscow would not hold any peace talks with Kyiv while its troops were in Russia.
“There is a very, very important point – this is Kursk,” he said. “Until we throw them out of our territory, we, naturally, will not conduct any negotiations with them.”
For the first time, Washington openly accused Tehran of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia, which has already received many hundreds of Iranian attack drones.
“Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken, calling the alleged move a “dangerous escalation”.
Iran has dismissed the allegation, while Russia has neither confirmed nor denied having a missile deal with Tehran.
