Recent attacks on Russian airfields that destroyed bombers and damaged other aircraft were coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services, local media says.
Ukrainian saboteurs coordinated by Kyiv’s military intelligence services carried out a pair of recent drone attacks that hit parked bomber aircraft at airbases deep inside Russia, Ukraine media claimed today.
The attacks on Russian airfields on Saturday and yesterday destroyed two Russian bombers and damaged two other aircraft, according to Ukrainska Pravda, as the war approaches its 18-month milestone.
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 on Saturday on the Soltsy airbase in the Novgorod region in northwestern Russia, about 700km north of the Ukrainian border, and yesterday’s strike against the Shaikovka airbase in the southwestern Kaluga region that is about 300km 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 showed what appeared to be 10 Tupolev Tu-22M long-range bombers parked on the apron of the Soltsy airbase last Wednesday. By Monday, two days after the attack, all those bombers had left the airbase. 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 airbase 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.
