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Russia and Ukraine launched drone strikes against each other Wednesday morning, each looking to score a major win in a fight that continues to drag on with little progress or end in sight.
Ukrainian intelligence claimed to have destroyed a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system in Crimea, while Russia struck grain facilities in Odesa overnight Tuesday.
The S-400 system shows another instance of Ukraine’s plan to strike at Russian assets, even behind the front line. Ukraine’s intelligence agency GUR claimed on its Telegram channel that Russia has a "limited number" of sophisticated systems left and that this loss strikes a "painful blow" to their forces.
The grain facilities present a greater problem not just for Ukraine but Western allies as a whole: The attack destroyed 14,300 tons of grain, bringing the monthly total grain losses to around 300,000, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov wrote on Facebook.
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Russia’s insistence on holding world food supplies hostage and using them to pressure action against Ukraine – in hopes of a quick end to the conflict through Ukrainian concessions – continues to concern officials.
Moscow in July ended its participation in the United Nations-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed Ukraine to ship out much-needed grain supplies to countries around the world.
Russia further claimed to have shot down Ukrainian drones in Moscow and the surrounding region, which Kyiv neither confirmed nor denied, according to The Associated Press.
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Moscow's airports briefly closed, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin also said one of the drones smashed into a building under construction in the business complex Moscow City, which has allegedly suffered two previous drone strikes.
Washington responded to the claims by stressing that it does not support or enable Ukraine’s alleged attacks inside Russia, but added that Ukraine chooses how it defends itself from Russia’s aggressions.
While Ukraine has not commented on or confirmed the attacks, such strikes have increased over the past few months, starting with an alleged attack on the Kremlin that Russian security forces managed to foil in early May.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine and then the U.S. for the drone that appeared over the Kremlin in May, while White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Russia’s claims were "ludicrous."
Since then, a number of attacks, which Ukraine didn’t acknowledge as part of its security policy, occurred, striking buildings in Moscow a few miles from the Kremlin.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address from late July that the war is "gradually… returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process."
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat indicated that the attacks demonstrated that the war is "already touching" Russians who continue to insist the war "doesn’t concern them."
"There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly," he said. "There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior anymore. They got what they wanted."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
August 23, 2023 at 11:06PM
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