KRASNOGORSK: A Ukraine drone crashed into an apartment block in a Moscow suburb on Friday, wounding a young boy and four others, officials said, as both countries traded another night of aerial strikes.
In a rare strike close to the Russian capital, the drone hit the 14th floor of a residential building in Krasnogorsk, on the western edge of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said on Telegram.
AFP reporters saw a hole in the building’s facade and rubble inside one destroyed apartment.
“The bang was loud,” local resident Maxim told AFP, adding that it sounded “almost identical” to a car crash.
Russia’s defense ministry said it downed 111 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the southern region of Rostov. Nobody was wounded, but the strikes cut power to at least 1,500 residents, Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
Russian shelling on Ukraine killed two people and wounded at least 17 in the southern city of Kherson, the Kherson region’s press office told AFP.
Russia has intensified heavy bombardments of Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure ahead of winter. Rolling power cuts have been introduced across the country in recent days, including Kyiv, as the country rations electricity.
Kyiv’s air force said Moscow fired 128 drones during the night.
Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes, typically hitting Russia’s energy infrastructure and oil refineries in a bid to cut Moscow’s export revenues.
Though it does target Moscow and its surrounding area, often forcing airport closures, hits are rare.
Kyiv’s Western allies have ratcheted up pressure on Moscow as the war enters a fourth winter, with the United States and European Union announcing new sanctions this week on Russian energy aimed at crippling its war economy.
EU leaders also took steps toward funding Ukraine’s defense for another two years, although they stopped short of approving a mammoth “reparations loan” backed by frozen Russian assets.
Rare Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow suburb injures five
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Rare Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow suburb injures five
- The drone hit the 14th floor of a residential building in Krasnogorsk, on the western edge of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said on Telegram
Kremlin welcomes US sanctions waiver says US and Russia share interest in stable energy markets
DUBAI: Russia sees a U.S. sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilise global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"We see actions by the United States aimed at trying to stabilise energy markets. In this respect, our interests coincide," he said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a temporary authorisation allowing countries around the world to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea on Thursday extending a measure that had previously been granted only to Indian refiners.
Bessent stressed in a post on X that the authorisation would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.
“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent said on a post on X.
However, the measure received mix reviews in European capitals, with many fearing it could help replenish Russia's assualt on Ukraine.
"I am concerned that we are further filling Putin's war chest," German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in Berlin on Friday.
Reiche said that she saw both sides to the United States' decision to issue a 30-day waiver for the purchase of Russian oil products, understanding the increasing ecnomic and political turnout from the oil crisis, particurlarly in South Korea and Japan.
"It seems to me that domestic political pressure in the United States is very, very high," Reiche said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was more direct, saying on Friday that it was wrong to ease sanctions against Russia for whatever reason. The sentiment was echoed by Norway’s Prime Minister, who also said sanctions should not be eased.
Oil prices held gains above $100 Friday and most equity markets dropped after Iran's leader called for the blocking of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the United States and Israel.
With the conflict heading towards its third week and showing no signs of ending, investors are growing increasingly worried about an extended crisis that could fan inflation and hammer the global economy.
