Drone strike destroys 6 Russian warplanes
UKRAINE destroyed six warplanes and crippled another eight in a drone strike against a Russian airbase, it claimed yesterday.
Security sources said 20 military personnel were also killed or injured in Thursday night’s attack on the Morozovsk base in Rostov, southern Russia, which houses Su-27 and Su-34 fighter planes used on the front line in Ukraine.
However, Russian officials said 44 drones aimed at the region – which borders Ukraine – were shot down and only a power substation was damaged in the raid.
About 600 people were left without power for a few hours after an electrical substation was hit in Morozovsk district, Rostov governor Vasily Golubev claimed on social media. He added there had also been some damage to a 16storey residential block.
In a later post, he said eight people had been injured by explosives from one of the fallen drones detonating during an investigation of the site “not far from the aerodrome”.
The Russian defence ministry said the regions of Saratov, Kursk, Belgorod and Krasnodar had also been targeted by drones but they were all shot down.
BBC Russian military analyst Pavel Aksyonov said an attack by so many in such a short space of time could have overwhelmed air defences.
Ukraine has stepped up unmanned attacks on targets in Russia recently, targeting military and energy facilities, but has told allies its forces are facing severe ammunition shortages. The country has set a target of producing a million drones domestically this year.
On Tuesday it claimed responsibility for a drone attack in Tatarstan, more than 800 miles from the Ukraine-Russia border.
The strikes, targeting a drone factory and an oil refinery, are the deepest into Russian territory since the start of the war. Twelve people were reported injured.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary has ruled out Western troops being sent into Ukraine to avoid giving Vladimir Putin of Russia “a target”.
Lord Cameron acknowledged that the “war will be lost if the allies don’t step up” but, asked at a Nato summit in Brussels whetherWestern nations should send troops into Ukraine, he replied “no”.