Ukraine drones hit air bases deep in Russia
Kremlin launches more missiles against civilians
KYIV — Ukraine executed its most brazen attack into Russian territory in the 9-month-old war Monday, targeting two military bases hundreds of miles inside the country using drones, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and a senior Ukrainian official.
The drones were launched from Ukrainian territory, and at least one of the strikes was made with the help of special forces close to the base who helped guide the drones to the target, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to convey sensitive information.
The strikes signaled a new willingness by Kyiv to take the fight to bases in the heart of Russia, raising the stakes in the war, and demonstrated an improved ability to attack at a distance. Shortly after the attacks on the bases, Russia sent a barrage of missiles streaking toward Ukrainian cities.
The Kremlin said that the weapons launched by Ukraine were Soviet-era jet drones and were aimed at bases in Ryazan and Engels, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border. It said that its forces had intercepted the drones, and that “the fall and explosion of the wreckage” had “slightly damaged” two planes, killing three servicemen and wounding four others.
The Engels airfield, on the Volga River in southern Russia, is a base for some of Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, including the Tupolev160 and Tupolev-95. Ukrainian officials say it is also a staging ground for Russia’s unrelenting campaign of missile attacks on infrastructure, which have left millions of Ukrainians with intermittent light, heat or water — or none at all — at the onset of winter. Security footage from an apartment complex near the base showed a fireball lighting up the sky.
The other explosion occurred at the Dyagilevo military base in the central city of Ryazan, about 100 miles from Moscow, according to Russia’s defense ministry. It was there that the fatalities and injuries occurred, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Ukraine’s government declined to publicly acknowledge the strikes, in keeping with its practice of intentional ambiguity on attacks in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea. But officials have established a pattern of comments suggestive of Ukraine’s involvement.
“The Earth is round — discovery made by Galileo,” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Twitter after the strikes at Russian bases. “If something is launched into other countries’ airspace, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point.”
On the economic front of the war, the United States and its allies Monday took their most serious steps to deprive Russia of at least some of the oil revenue that is vital to its government and economy. The Group of 7 wealthy democracies began trying to enforce a $60-a-barrel cap on the price of Russian oil on global markets, and a European Union embargo on most oil purchases from Russia took effect.
Ukraine’s Western backers have refused to supply it with long-range weapons that could strike far into Russian territory, trying to avoid being drawn more deeply into the conflict. But Ukraine’s state-owned weapons maker said in October that it was “finalizing the development” of a drone with a 165pound warhead and a range of more than 600 miles, and said Sunday that it had completed tests of the weapon.
“We hope to be able to test it in combat use,” said Natalia Sad, a spokesperson for the arms maker.
It was not clear how Ukrainian special forces were able to infiltrate Russia, or how close to either base they got. But the car bomb assassination in August of ultranationalist commentator Daria Dugina, believed to have been carried out by Ukrainians, showed similar capabilities.