Kyiv, Dec 26 (Reuters) – A drone believed to be Ukrainian penetrated hundreds of kilometers through Russian airspace, causing a deadly explosion at the main base of Moscow’s strategic bombers in the latest attack by expose the gaps in their anti-aircraft defenses.
Moscow said on Monday it had shot down the drone, causing it to crash at Engels Air Force Base, where three service members were killed. As per its usual policy on incidents in Russia, Ukraine did not comment.
The base, the main airfield for bombers that Kyiv says Moscow has used in recent months to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border. The planes themselves are also designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles as part of Russia’s long-term strategic deterrent.
A suspected drone already struck it on December 5, exposing what was then widely described as a humiliating hole in Russia’s air defenses that the latest attack suggests Moscow has yet to plug.
The Russian defense ministry said in a statement that no planes were damaged, but Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts said several had been destroyed. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
As the war entered its 11th month, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted leaders of other former Soviet states in St. Petersburg on Monday for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States group, which Ukraine has long since left.
In televised remarks, Putin made no direct reference to the war, although he said threats to the security and stability of the Eurasian region were increasing.
“Unfortunately, the challenges and threats in this area, especially from the outside, only grow every year,” he said. “We also have to recognize, unfortunately, that disagreements also arise between Commonwealth member states.”
PROOF OF AUTHORITY
The invasion of Ukraine has been a test of Russia’s longstanding authority among other ex-Soviet states. Clashes have escalated in recent months between CIS member Armenia and Azerbaijan in a conflict where Russia has peacekeepers, while a border dispute has erupted between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Putin said these disagreements should be resolved through “comradely aid and mediation actions.”
On Sunday, Putin said he was open to negotiations on Ukraine, blaming Kyiv and its Western allies for not participating in the talks. He has shown no sign of backing down from his demand that Ukraine recognize Moscow’s armed conquest of a fifth country. Kyiv says it will fight until Russia withdraws.
“We are ready to negotiate with all those involved on acceptable solutions, but this depends on them: we are not the ones who refuse to negotiate, they are,” Putin said in an interview on Rossiya 1 state television.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the remarks: “Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia does not want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday
Moscow’s proposals to “demilitarize” and “desazify” Ukraine are well known to Kyiv and it is up to the Ukrainian authorities to deliver on them, citing Russian goals that Ukraine and its Western supporters have dismissed as propaganda.
Otherwise, “the issue will be decided by the Russian military,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency TASS, despite Moscow’s embarrassing setbacks in its original plans to invade Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly video that the situation at the front in the Donbas region was “difficult and painful” and required all the country’s “strength and concentration”.
He also said that as a result of Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, nearly nine million people were without electricity. This number represents about a quarter of the population of Ukraine.
Since the invasion, Ukraine has pushed Russian forces out of the north, defeated them outside the capital and forced a Russian retreat to the east and south. But Moscow still controls areas in the east and south of the lands Putin claims to have annexed.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have died in cities razed by Russia and thousands of soldiers on both sides have died, forcing Putin to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists for the first time since World War II.
Ukraine’s military said early Monday that Moscow had shelled dozens of towns in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzia regions along the frontline.
Since October, Russia has been deliberately hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with drones and missiles. Moscow says the aim is to degrade Kyiv’s fighting capacity. Ukraine says the attacks have no military purpose and are intended to harm civilians as winter sets in, a war crime.
Ukraine’s energy grid operator said on Monday that there was still a significant power shortage, with emergency consumption restrictions introduced in five regions of Ukraine and the capital.
Reuters bureau reports; Written by Michael Perry, Angus MacSwan, Peter Graff, Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, John Stonestreet and Alistair Bell
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