MOSCOW
\nUkraine targeted the Russian capital on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far, killing at least one and wrecking dozens of homes in the Moscow region and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow.
\nRussia, the world\u2019s biggest nuclear power, said it had destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack drones as they swarmed over the Moscow region, which has a population of more than 21 million, and 124 more over eight other regions.
\nAt least one person was killed near Moscow, Russian authorities said. Three of Moscow\u2019s four airports were closed for more than six hours and almost 50 flights were diverted.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the drone attack was another reminder of the real nature of Ukraine\u2019s political leadership, which he said was made up of Russia\u2019s enemies.
\n\u201cThere is no way that night time strikes on residential neighbourhoods can be associated with military action,\u201d said Peskov.
\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d he said, using the expression Moscow uses to describe its war in Ukraine.
\nKyiv said Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, had attacked it overnight with 46 drones, of which 38 were destroyed.
\nThe drone attacks on Russia damaged at high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region, setting flats on fire, residents told Reuters.
\nA 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were wounded in Ramenskoye, Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
\nResidents said they awoke to blasts and fire.
\n\u201cI looked at the window and saw a ball of fire,\u201d Alexander Li, a resident of the district told Reuters. \u201cThe window got blown out by the shockwave.\u201d
\nGeorgy, a resident who declined to give his surname, said he heard a drone buzzing outside his building in the early hours.
\n\u201cI drew back the curtain and it hit the building right before my eyes, I saw it all,\u201d he said. \u201cI took my family and we ran outside.\u201d
\nThe Ramenskoye district, some 50 km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, has a population of around a quarter of a million people, according to official data.
\nMore than 70 drones were also downed over Russia\u2019s Bryansk region and tens more over other regions, Russia\u2019s defence ministry said. There was no damage or casualties reported there.
\nAs Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has taken the war to Russia with a cross-border attack into Russia\u2019s western Kursk region that began on Aug. 6 and by carrying out increasingly large drone attacks deep into Russian territory.
\nDRONE WAR
\nThe war has largely been a grinding artillery and drone war along the 1,000 km (620 mile) heavily fortified front line in southern and eastern Ukraine involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
\nMoscow and Kyiv have both sought to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in innovative ways, and seek new ways to destroy them – from using shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.
\nBoth sides have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their own production and assembly to attack targets including tanks and energy infrastructure such as refineries and airfields.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to insulate Moscow from the grinding rigours of the war, has called Ukrainian drone attacks that target civilian infrastructure such as nuclear power plants \u201cterrorism\u201d and has vowed a response.
\nMoscow and other big Russian cities have largely been insulated from the war.
\nRussia itself has hit Ukraine with thousands of missiles and drones in the last two-and-a-half years, killing thousands of civilians, wrecking much of the country\u2019s energy system and damaging commercial and residential properties across the country.
\nUkraine says it has a right to strike back deep into Russia, though Kyiv\u2019s Western backers have said they do not want a direct confrontation between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.
\nThere was no immediate comment from Ukraine about Tuesday\u2019s attacks. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
\nTuesday\u2019s attack follows drone attacks Ukraine launched in early September chiefly targeting Russia\u2019s energy and power facilities.
\nAuthorities in the Tula region, which neighbours the Moscow region to its north, said drone wreckage had fallen onto a fuel and energy facility but that the \u201ctechnological process\u201d of the facility was not affected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Ukraine targeted the Russian capital on Tuesday in its biggest drone attack so far, killing at least one and wrecking dozens of homes in the Moscow region and forcing around 50 flights to be diverted from airports around Moscow. Russia, the world\u2019s biggest nuclear power, said it had destroyed at least 20 Ukrainian attack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-430487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n