- Three dead at the Russian base a few hours from Moscow
- One of the affected bases was home to the Russian bomber fleet
- Ukraine’s minister jokes that careless Russian smokers are to blame
KYIV/NOVOSOFIIVKA, Ukraine, Dec 6 (Reuters) – A third Russian airfield caught fire on Tuesday after a drone attack, a day after Ukraine demonstrated an apparent new ability to penetrate hundreds of kilometers deep into Russian airspace with attacks on two Russian aircraft. bases
Officials in the Russian city of Kursk, closest to Ukraine, released images of black smoke over an airfield early Tuesday morning after the latest strike. The governor said an oil storage tank had caught fire there, but there were no casualties.
It came a day after Russia confirmed it had been hit by what it said were Soviet-era drones: at Engels Air Base, home of Russia’s fleet of giant strategic bombers, and in Ryazan, just hours away by car from Moscow. Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility for the strikes, but instead celebrated them.
“If Russia considers the incidents to be deliberate attacks, it will likely view them as some of the most strategically significant force protection failures since its invasion of Ukraine,” Britain’s defense ministry said on Tuesday.
“The Russian chain of command will likely seek to identify and impose severe sanctions on Russian officials found responsible for enabling the incident.”
Russia’s defense ministry said three service members were killed in the attack in Ryazan. Although the strikes hit military targets, it called them terrorism and said the aim was to disable its long-range aircraft.
The New York Times, citing a senior Ukrainian official, said the drones involved in Monday’s attacks were launched from Ukrainian territory and that at least one of the attacks was carried out with the help of special forces close to the base.
Ukraine has never acknowledged responsibility for the attacks on Russia. Asked about the strikes, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskiy Reznikov repeated a long-running joke that explosions at Russian bases were caused by careless smokers.
“Very often Russians smoke in places where smoking is prohibited,” he said.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych went further, noting that Engels was the only base Russia has that is fully equipped for the giant bombers that Russia has used in attacks on Ukraine.
“They will try to disperse (the strategic planes) at the airfields, but all this complicates the operation against Ukraine. Yesterday, thanks to their unsuccessful smoking, we achieved a very great result,” he said.
Russian commentators said on social media that if Ukraine could hit Russia so far, it could also hit Moscow.
“The ability of the armed forces of Ukraine to achieve military objectives deep in the territory of the Russian Federation has a very symbolic and important meaning,” Ukrainian military analyst Serhiy Zgurets wrote on the Espreso TV website.
NEW BAR
The huge Tupolev long-range bombers that Russia is stationing at Engels Air Force Base are an important part of its strategic nuclear arsenal, similar to the B-52s deployed by the United States during the Cold War. Russia has used them in its campaign since October to destroy Ukraine’s energy grid with almost weekly waves of missiles.
The Engels base, near the city of Saratov, is at least 600 km (372 miles) from the nearest Ukrainian territory.
Russia responded to Monday’s attacks with what it called a “massive attack on Ukraine’s military control system.” Missile attacks in Ukraine destroyed homes and knocked out power, but the impact appeared to be less severe than last month’s bombings that plunged millions of Ukrainians into darkness and cold.
Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down more than 60 of about 70 missiles.
A missile had ripped a huge crater from the ground in the village of Novosofiivka, about 25 km (16 miles) east of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, and completely destroyed a nearby house. Ambulance workers picked up two bodies lying next to a wrecked car.
Olha Troshyna, 62, said the dead were her neighbors who were standing next to the car unloading her son and daughter-in-law when the missile hit. With the houses now destroyed and winter setting in, he had no idea where he would go.
“We have nowhere to go back to,” he said. “It would be nice if it was spring or summer. We could have done something if it was a warm season. But what am I going to do now?”
Ukraine warned that there would be emergency blackouts again in several regions while it repaired the damage.
At least four people were killed in Russia’s latest attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“In many regions, there will have to be emergency shutdowns,” he said in a video address Monday afternoon. “We will do everything we can to restore stability.”
Russia, which calls the invasion a “special military operation” to eliminate nationalists, claims a military justification for its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Kyiv says the attacks have no military purpose and are intended to harm civilians, a war crime.
“They don’t understand one thing: these missile attacks only increase our resistance,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov said. “Also, they increase our partners’ desire to support us.”
The United States said it would hold a virtual meeting on Thursday with oil and gas executives to discuss how they can support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia would fail in its “current gambit of trying, in effect, to get the Ukrainian people to raise their hands”.
Reuters bureau reports; Written by Peter Graff Editing by Gareth Jones
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.