Don't point finger of blame at us over drone strikes, US tells Putin

Blast proof: a baby inacotin front of a window protected by sandbags in the department of intensive care for newborns at Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv yesterday

- Rachael Burford Political Reporter

THE United States has “neither encouraged nor enabled” Ukraine’s drone strikes on key targets inside Russian territory, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of carrying out attacks on three of its air bases, including two that were hundreds of miles from Ukraine’s borders.

Ukraine has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for strikes and defence minister Oleskiy Reznikov repeated a longstanding joke blaming carelessness with cigarettes.

“Very often Russians smoke in places where it’s forbidden to smoke,” he said.

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the US, UK and other allies not to cross “red lines” by supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine.