Drone Strikes Hit Inside Russia for Second Straight Day After Ukraine Launched New Attack

A drone attack hit an air base in Russia on Tuesday, one day after Ukraine used drones to hit two military bases deep inside the country’s borders, The New York Times reports.

A drone strike hit an oil facility near an airfield in the Kursk region, which is about 80 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Authorities said that there were no injuries.

Russian officials did not directly accuse Ukraine of launching the attack but it comes one day after Ukraine used drones to strike two military bases about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border in its most brazen attack yet.

The strikes suggest Ukraine is increasingly willing to hit targets inside Russia. But Russia responded with a barrage of missiles that knocked out power in major cities across Ukraine.

Monday’s strikes:

Monday’s strikes hit the Engels airfield and the Dyagilevo military base.

The drones were launched from Ukraine and in at least one of the strikes Ukrainian special forces near the base helped guide the drones to the target.

The Kremlin said its forces had intercepted the Soviet-era drones but the “the fall and explosion of the wreckage” had “slightly damaged” two planes, killing three soldiers and wounding four others.

Ukraine adjusts:

Western allies have been wary of giving Ukraine weapons that could be used to strike inside Russia but Ukraine appears to have used its own technology to launch the drone attacks.

The strikes show that Ukraine is “now taking the fight to Putin,” wrote Mick Ryan, a retired Australian Army officer.

“It is not, as some are sure to claim, an escalation,” he wrote. “But it is a necessary political and military measure for Ukraine to limit the humanitarian harm of Russia’s brutal drone and missile attacks.”

 

Related News
Comments