Ukraine media say Kyiv saboteurs were behind drone attacks on air bases deep inside Russia

Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kyiv's military intelligence services carried out a pair of recent drone attacks that hit parked bomber aircraft at air bases deep inside Russia.

Kyiv: Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services carried out a pair of recent drone attacks that hit parked bomber aircraft at air bases deep inside Russia, Ukraine media claimed Tuesday.

The attacks on Russian airfields on Saturday and Monday destroyed two Russian bombers and damaged two other aircraft, according to Ukrainska Pravda, as the war approaches its 18-month milestone.

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That newspaper and Ukraine’s NV news outlet said groups of saboteurs were behind the strikes. It was not possible to verify the claims on the ground.

Ukrainian media attributed two attacks to the saboteurs: a strike Saturday on the Soltsy air base in the Novgorod region in northwestern Russia, about 700 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border, and Monday’s strike against the Shaikovka air base in the southwestern Kaluga region that is about 300 kilometres northeast of the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told the Ukrainian LIGA.net news outlet Monday that at least one Russian warplane was damaged in the attack on Shaikovka.

He said it was carried out by people who worked in close coordination with Ukrainian military intelligence but gave no further details.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the attack on Soltsy damaged one aircraft. It didn’t comment on the reported attack on Shaikovka, but Russian media did.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed what appeared to be 10 Tupolev Tu-22M long-range bombers parked on the apron of the Soltsy air base on August 16. By Monday, two days after the attack, all those bombers had left the air base. A large black spot was visible on one of the aprons where one of the Tupolevs had been parked.

Photos purporting to be from the Soltsy air base and published by Russian and Ukrainian media showed a Russian Tu-22M bomber ablaze there after the attack.

Ukraine has since early this year sought to take the war into the heart of Russia. It has increasingly targeted Moscow’s military assets behind the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine and at the same time has launched drones against Moscow, most recently early Tuesday.

Kyiv is also trying to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin along multiple fronts, pursuing a counteroffensive at various points along the 1,500-kilometre front line, as well as diplomatically by obtaining pledges of more weaponry from its Western allies, including F-16 warplanes.

Some previous Ukrainian attacks on Russian air bases involved Soviet-designed drones powered by turbojet engines. They have a range of up to 1,000 kilometres. But the strikes in recent days apparently used primitive small drones, which would corroborate the possibility that they were launched by saboteurs.

Also, a Russian pensioner walking in a forest about 600km north of the Ukrainian border on Monday came across the remains of a drone painted in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Pictures shared on Russian social media channels show that the drone had “glory to Ukraine” inscribed on a broken wing and “glory to the heroes” written on the other wing, the Russian telegram channel Baza said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a recent spate of drone attacks apparently targeting Moscow continued early Tuesday but were thwarted by Russian air defence systems, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said.

However, falling wreckage of one drone shattered an apartment building’s windows and damaged vehicles in Moscow’s western suburbs.

There were no reports of injuries in the latest drone attacks that Russia blamed on Kyiv, Though the drone attacks on Russian soil have occurred almost daily in recent weeks, they have caused little damage and no victims.

Flights at several Moscow airports were temporarily suspended Tuesday as a security precaution amid the attacks, authorities said.

Two other drones were jammed and crashed in the western Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, the defense ministry said.

Ukraine hasn’t acknowledged responsibility for the attempted drone strikes, nor have senior Russian leaders made any comment about the development.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was to speak via video link at a meeting this week in Johannesburg of leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Putin is under threat of arrest if he travels abroad due to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and won’t attend the so-called BRICS talks in person.