Three servicemen have died after a Ukrainian drone was shot down as it headed towards a Russian airbase, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. This attack underscores Russia’s vulnerability, as Ukraine appears increasingly willing and able to hit targets deep within the country.
A week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was given a hero’s welcome in Washington, where he asked for even more powerful weapons assistance, Kyiv has shown its ability to defend itself against Russia with its own arsenal of long-range weapons. .
This is the second attack this month on the Engels military site, which is about 300 mi (480 km) from the Ukrainian border and hosts Russian strategic bombers, part of the country’s nuclear triad . The drones in the first attack were launched from Ukrainian territory, according to a senior Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity at the time.
Deliberate Ambiguity Policy
The Ukrainian government publicly follows a policy of deliberate ambiguity regarding strikes on Russian territory. These began in the first month of the war with an assault by Ukrainian helicopters near Belgorod, not far from the Ukrainian border. But Ukraine has made no secret that it is developing long-range drones.
Although Ukrainian officials do not publicly confirm Ukraine’s military attacks on targets in Russia, which have had only military targets, they openly praise the successful strikes and discuss how they benefit Ukraine militarily. Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told Ukrainian television on Monday that the most recent explosion at Engels air base was “a consequence of what Russia is doing” in Ukraine. .
If the Russians thought that no one in their country would be affected by the war, then they were deeply mistaken.
Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force
The first explosion at the airbase this month forced the Russian air force to move planes from the site, he said.
“This dispersion took place, and now they are trying to maintain their strategic aviation at several airfields,” Yuriy Ihnat added.
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PHOTO MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Engels Air Base in Saratov, Russia, Dec. 4. Russian media reported on Monday that three soldiers were killed when a Ukrainian drone was shot down on its approach to the Engels base.
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PHOTO TYLER HICKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Military vehicles drive through deep muddy ruts in Ukraine’s Lyman district on Sunday, Christmas Day.
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PHOTO LAURA BOUSHNAK, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Families attend a screening of a Ukrainian film in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Kyiv on Saturday, Christmas Eve.
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PHOTO TYLER HICKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
A pedestrian examines battle-damaged buildings in Bakhmut, a frontline town that continues to come under Russian attack, in the Donbass region on Saturday.
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PHOTO LAURA BOUSHNAK, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ukrainians attend a Christmas Day church service at St. Sophia’s Cathedral, one of Kyiv’s oldest churches.
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PHOTO LAURA BOUSHNAK, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Oleksandr and Inna Borodko celebrated Christmas with their son, Dmitriy, at his apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday.
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PHOTO TYLER HICKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
A fighter from the Karpatska Sich Battalion in the territory recaptured from Russian occupation, in the Lyman district, Ukraine, on Christmas Day.
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PHOTO LAURA BOUSHNAK, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Families of Ukrainian POWs at a protest titled ‘Christmas in Captivity’ in Kyiv on Saturday
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PHOTO TYLER HICKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ukrainian troops on their way to the frontline near Lyman, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Christmas Day.
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PHOTO TYLER HICKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Ukrainian soldier from the Karpatska Sich battalion in a church destroyed by shelling and looted by the Russian military during their occupation of Lyman, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Christmas Day.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement quoted by state news agency TASS that a Ukrainian drone was shot down early Monday “at low altitude” and that three servicemen were killed by its wreckage.
The planes at the base were not damaged as a result of the attack, the ministry said. Russia’s account could not be independently confirmed.
“Defensive Supplies”
The State Department and the US Department of Defense declined to comment on the drone strikes reported on Monday. A State Department official referred to comments by spokesman Ned Price after the first strike on Engels and another airfield in Russia’s Ryazan region on December 6, in which he noted that the United States did not had not supplied Ukraine with weapons for use inside Russia.
“We’ve been very clear that these are defensive supplies,” he said at the time. We do not encourage Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. »
Shortly after the December 6 attacks on the bases, Russia sent a barrage of missiles towards Ukrainian cities.
Engels airfield on the Volga in southern Russia is a base for some of Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers, including the Tupolev-160 and Tupolev-95. Ukrainian officials say it is also a staging base for Russia’s relentless campaign of missile attacks on infrastructure, which has left millions of Ukrainians without light, heat or water. – or nothing at all – when winter arrives.
Monday’s attack on the strategic Russian facility has raised new questions among pro-invasion activists and commentators about the state of Russia’s military and air defenses.
“The war, as it should be, opened our eyes to many things,” wrote Alexander Khodakovsky, a pro-Russian military commander in a separatist formation in Ukraine, in his channel on Telegram.
“We now understand that we are vulnerable,” he added. Otherwise, it would be possible to stay in our illusions indefinitely until something more serious falls on our heads. »
This article was originally published in the New York Times.