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.

BLINKEN CONFIRMS IRAN SUPPLYING RUSSIA WITH SHORT-RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILES

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.”

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. (Photo provided by East2West)

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. 

ROMANIA AND LATVIA CONFIRM INCURSIONS BY RUSSIAN DRONES INTO NATO AIRSPACE

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.

A police officer stands guard near a damaged multistory residential building following an alleged Ukrainian drone attack in the Moscow region of Russia on Sept. 10, 2024. (Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

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. 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into orbit Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture farther than anyone since NASA’s Apollo moonshots.

Unlike his previous chartered flight, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman shared the cost with SpaceX this time around, which included developing and testing brand new spacesuits to see how they’ll hold up in the harsh vacuum.

If all goes as planned, it will be the first time private citizens conduct a spacewalk, but they won’t venture away from the capsule. Considered one of the most riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union popped open the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the U.S. Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.

Isaacman, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot, launched before dawn aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. The spacewalk is scheduled for late Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.

But first the passengers are shooting for way beyond the International Space Station — an altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometers), which would surpass the Earth-lapping record set during NASA’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the moon have ventured farther.

The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height — filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris — before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half. Even at this lower 435 miles (700 kilometers), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.

All four wore SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurized for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.

Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly popping out of the hatch. They’ll test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies. Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only NASA’s suits at the space station come equipped with jetpacks, for emergency use only.

Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.

“We’re sending you hugs from the ground,” Launch Control radioed after the crew reached orbit. “May you make history and come home safely.”

Isaacman replied: “We wouldn’t be on this journey without all 14,000 of you back at SpaceX.”

At a preflight news conference, Isaacman — CEO and founder of the credit card processing company Shift4 — refused to say how much he invested in the flight. “Not a chance,” he said.

SpaceX teamed up with Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for NASA.

“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” Gerstenmaier said.

It’s the first of three trips that Isaacman bought from Elon Musk 2 1/2 years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021. Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now. Training was extensive; Poteet said it rivaled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.

As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Gillis and Menon helped Isaacman and his previous team — as well as NASA’s professional crews — prepare for their rides.

“I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our solar system,” the 41-year-old Isaacman said before liftoff.

Poor weather caused a two-week delay. The crew needed favorable forecasts not only for launch, but for splashdown days later. With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.