Airports were closed around Moscow as the Russian capital was targeted with one of the heaviest waves of Ukrainian drones of the war.
One woman was reported to have been killed in an attack that caused a fire in a residential building.
Drone attacks were also reported in other Russian regions, including those on the border with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin says Russia’s Kursk offensive has failed to slow the advance of Moscow’s forces near Donetsk.
Ukraine braces for hardest winter due to energy infrastructure attacks
Ukraine is facing its toughest winter since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion due to the intense attacks on its energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“Energy resilience is one of our greatest challenges this year,” Shmyhal said.
He also mentioned that the Ukrainian government, with support from European countries, is working on decentralizing energy generation to make it less vulnerable to attack.
“We successfully got through what was essentially two and a half winters. We will get through three, with this upcoming heating season likely being just as difficult, if not the hardest,” Shmyhal said.
Greenpeace is urging the Ukrainian government to invest in renewable energy, especially solar, to help the country rebuild its energy capacity.
“Our research says that the current targets, which the Ukrainian government set for reaching solar energy by 2027, could be increased at least fivefold,” Natalia Gozak, director of Greenpeace in Ukraine, told the AP news agency.
‘Ugly propaganda’: Iran dismisses reports of weapons deliveries to Russia
Iran‘s Foreign Ministry has rejected Western reports of Iranian weapons being transferred to Russia as “ugly propaganda” aimed at deflecting attention from Western military support for Israel.
“The publication of false and misleading reports about the transfer of Iranian weapons to some countries is simply an ugly propaganda to conceal the large illegal arms support of the United States and some Western countries for the genocide in Gaza,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said,
“Some Western countries present themselves as defenders of human rights and support the implementation of international conventions and treaties, but send all kinds of weapons to back the war crimes of the Zionist regime,” Kanaani added, employing a term commonly used in Iranian political circles to refer to Israel.
Russia has regularly used Iranian-made Shahed drones in its aerial attacks on Ukraine — one even fell in Latvia, a European Union and NATO country, over the weekend and reports of deliveries of Iranian ballistic missiles to Moscow have this week prompted further Western sanctions.
US and UK announce Iran sanctions over Russia missiles
As indicated earlier in the day, the United States and the United Kingdom have confirmed new sanctions against Iran linked to the alleged supply of ballistic missiles to Russia by Tehran.
An updated sanctions list on the US Treasury Department website details new sanctions imposed on 10 Iranian nationals and five Iranian companies in the transportation and propulsion industries with alleged links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and to Russia.
Several Russian organizations were also sanctioned for “their intent to use [Iranian] weapons systems” against Ukraine, as well as five Russian vessels involved in transporting military supplies from Iran to Russia.
In addition, Washington has also sanctioned Iranian airline Iran Air “for operating or having operated in the transportation sector of the Russian Federation economy,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the UK said it is terminating “all direct air services between the UK and Iran.”
London said it was acting alongside international partners to “cancel its bilateral air services arrangements with Iran,” which would “restrict Iran Air’s ability to fly in to the UK.”
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said, “We will continue to use every lever at our disposal to put pressure on Iran to end its support for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion [of Ukraine].”
In Ukraine itself, Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said Kyiv would consider cutting diplomatic ties with Tehran should Russia deploy Iranian ballistic missiles against Ukrainian targets.
“I will not say now exactly what is meant by devastating consequences, so as not to weaken our diplomatic position,” he said. “But I can say that all options, including the one you mentioned, are on the table.”Moscow says recent Ukrainian attacks justify the invasion of the country
The Kremlin on Tuesday restated its stance to continue the war following recent Ukrainian drone attacks in the Moscow region.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the attack justified the “special military operation” in Ukraine and proved that the “Kyiv regime” is Russia’s enemy.
Peskov addressed neither Russia unilaterally annexing the Crimean peninsula in 2014, in a step condemned by the international community, nor how an attack on Tuesday could be seen as justification for the full-scale invasion Russia launched into Ukraine in February 2022.
He added that there is no possibility of peace negotiations as long as Ukrainian forces remain present in Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukraine attacked the Moscow region on Tuesday, killing at least one woman and wrecking dozens of homes. Meanwhile, Russia continues its own attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
UK, France, Germany ‘strongly condemn’ Iranian missiles to Russia
The governments of the UK, France and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s alleged delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s procurement of the weapons.
“This is a further escalation of Iran’s military support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which means that Iranian missiles will reach European territory and that the suffering of the Ukrainian population will be intensified,” the governments said, according to the German government’s statement provided to DW.
“This action is an escalation both on the side of Iran and of Russia and poses a direct threat to European security,” they said.
The governments said they had already warned of “new and far-reaching measures against Iran” should it make such weapons deliveries.
As a result, they said, new steps would be taken “promptly,” including sanctions against Iran Air and the freezing of bilateral air transport agreements, as well as identifying “meaningful entities and individuals” who are party either to Iran’s ballistic missile programs or to delivering such weapons to Moscow.
