Ukraine targets Russian warplanes in large-scale drone attack
The Russian Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday, causing several aircraft to catch fire. The military operations took place ahead of the peace negotiations scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday.
The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two areas – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said.
Ukraine launched the clandestine attack, code-named "Spider Web," on Russian military airfields in what observers are calling one of the most sophisticated operations of the war between the two nations, now in its fourth year since Russia's 2022 invasion.
While a fleet of Ukrainian drones, which appeared to have been smuggled into Russia ahead of the surprise attack, reportedly took out dozens of aircraft deep inside Russian territory, a Russian bombing of a Ukrainian base claimed the lives of a dozen soldiers.
On Sunday night, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the “absolutely brilliant” Ukrainian drone attack, saying it inflicted tangible losses on Moscow.
The president said 117 drones had been used to attack the Russian bases. “Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” he said.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Sunday that it had hit Russian military planes worth a combined $7bn in a wave of drone strikes on Russian air bases thousands of kilometres behind the front lines.
Both parties have sharply ramped up their attacks as Ukraine confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul led by its Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials.
