An explosion lights up the sky as the Russian military repels a drone attack on an airport in the northwestern city of Pskov
A Ukraine explained on Friday, 1 that the drone that attacked Pskov airport was launched from there Russia, in full counteroffensive to try to liberate the occupied territories. “The drones that attacked the Kresty air base in Pskov were launched from Russia. Four Russian IL76 military transport aircraft were hit in the attack. Two were destroyed and two others were seriously damaged,” Kyrylo Budanov, director of Ukrainian military intelligence, said on social media. This is the first time Kyiv recognizes operations on Russian territory, where several drone attacks and suspected acts of sabotage have been recorded, as well as a number of armed raids by Russian fighters in favor of Ukraine. “We operate on the territory of Russia,” Budanov emphasized in an interview with “The War Zone.” According to the publication, the military commander did not disclose whether the attack on Pskov was carried out by his military or by Russian fighters loyal to Kiev.
Drone attacks on Moscow and other Russian cities that have been attributed to Ukraine have occurred almost daily for several months. However, Russian troops continue to bomb Ukrainian sites on a large scale. In the early hours of Wednesday (30) morning, Pskov airport, a Russian city close to the borders with Estonia, Latvia and Belarus, 700 kilometers from Ukraine, was the target of an attack by Ukrainian drones. Budanov stated that the Russian Defense Ministry used the aircraft to transport troops and cargo. This week is the Kremlin stated that its analysts were trying to study the routes used by drones to “avoid such situations in the future.” The Pskov region, which was also attacked by drones in late May, is near the border with Estonia and Latvia, two NATO member states, to the west and Belarus to the south. The Kremlin declined to comment on the claim. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov considered this “the prerogative of our military.”
Last week, a similar attack occurred at the air base in neighboring Novgorod. At least one military aircraft was hit. On Thursday, the Ukrainian president said Volodymyr Zelensky, announced with satisfaction that the country had reached a goal 700 km away, without mentioning any specific case. “The result of our weapons, the new Ukrainian weapons, is 700 kilometers. “The goal is to go further,” he said. At the end of June, Zelensky declared that “a war is imminent on the territory of Russia.” Ukraine is trying to expand the fighting into Russian territory while continuing the counteroffensive to liberate the occupied territories in the east and south of the country. So far, progress on the operation has been limited. The Ukrainian president stressed this Friday that “there can be no lasting peace in Ukraine and not even in Europe” until Russia gives up the Crimean peninsula, Donbass and the rest of the occupied territories, annexed by Moscow in 2014. “Crimea, a peninsula that attracted tourists and businesses, is now an occupied and militarized territory, incapable of development,” Zelensky said via videoconference during the European House Ambrosetti economic forum in Cernobbio, northern Italy.
*With information from international agencies