Ukraine leader defiant as drones strike Russia again
Moscow’s lack of air defences criticised after second attack
Drones struck inside Russia’s border with Ukraine yesterday in the second day of attacks exposing the vulnerability of some of Moscow’s most important military sites, observers said.
Ukrainian officials did not formally confirm carrying out drone strikes inside Russia, and they have maintained ambiguity over previous high-profile attacks.
But Britain’s Defence Ministry said Russia was likely to consider the attacks on Russian bases more than 500km from the border with Ukraine as “some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian authorities will “take the necessary measures” to enhance protection of key facilities. Russian bloggers who generally maintain contacts with officials in their country’s military criticised the lack of defensive measures.
A fire broke out at an airport in Russia’s southern Kursk region that borders Ukraine after a drone hit the facility, the region’s governor said yesterday. In a second incident, an industrial plant 80km from the Ukrainian border was also targeted by drones, which missed a fuel depot at the site, Russian media reported.
“They will have less aviation equipment after being damaged due to these mysterious explosions,” said Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Moscow blamed Kyiv for unprecedented attacks on two air bases deep inside Russia on Tuesday. The attacks on the Engels base in the Saratov region on the Volga River and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia were some of the most brazen inside Russia during the war.
In the aftermath, Russian troops carried out another wave of missile strikes on Ukrainian territory struck homes and buildings and killed civilians, compounding damage done to power and other infrastructure over weeks of missile attacks.
Approximately half of households in the Kyiv region remain without electricity, the regional governor said yesterday, while authorities in the southern Odesa say they have managed to restore power to hospitals and some vital services.
In a new display of defiance from
Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to an eastern city near the front line. Marking Ukraine’s Armed Forces Day, Zelenskyy travelled to the eastern Donetsk region and vowed to push Russian forces out of all of Ukraine’s territory.
“Everyone sees your strength and your skill . . . I’m grateful to your parents. They raised real heroes,” Zelenskyy said in a video address to Ukrainian forces from the city of Sloviansk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the east.
After Ukrainian forces took control in November of the major Russianoccupied city of Kherson, neither side
has made significant advances. But Ukrainian officials have indicated that the country plans to pursue counter-offensives during the winter when frozen ground is conducive to moving heavy equipment. Kherson city is still being hit by Russian rocket attacks but if Ukrainian forces establish firm control there it could be a bridgehead for advancing toward Crimea.
Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said the latest strikes by Ukraine “have raised questions about security of Russian military air bases”.
The Engels base hosts Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic
bombers that have been involved in strikes on Ukraine. Dyagilevo houses tanker aircraft used for mid-air refuelling.
In a daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, Britain’s Defence Ministry said the bombers would likely be dispersed to other airfields.
Speaking in a conference call with reporters yesterday, Peskov said that “the Ukrainian regime’s course for continuation of such terror attacks poses a threat.”
Peskov reaffirmed that Russia sees no prospects for peace talks now, adding that “the Russian Federation must achieve its stated goals.”