After years of fighting off Russia, Ukraine is suddenly throwing a lot back at it. Kyiv appears to have just carried out its largest attack on Russian military airbases of the war, and its forces continue to press forward with their shock invasion of Russia’s Kursk region.
Russia’s defense ministry said early Wednesday that its troops shot down 117 drones and four missiles launched overnight by Kyiv. Moscow claimed its air-defense systems destroyed projectiles over eight different regions, including border areas like Kursk.
Russia didn’t say whether any of its airfields were hit, but an official in the Security Service of Ukraine told local media that long-range drones targeted and struck Russian airfields in Kursk, Voronezh, Savasleyka, and Borisoglebs.
An SBU source told state-run Ukrinform, Ukraine’s national news agency, that Ukrainian forces “carried out the largest attack on Russian military airfields since the war began,” adding that “it was a ‘fun’ night” at the airfields.
Business Insider could not immediately verify the claims from either side, and the SBU has not yet responded to requests for additional information.
As the targets were Russian airfields, the long-range strikes appear to reflect Ukraine’s efforts to curb the Russian aerial threat, which includes going after Moscow’s highly destructive glide bombs and the aircraft that drop them. These weapons have caused significant damage both on and off the battlefield.
While the extent of the damage across the different bases remains unclear, footage purportedly captured some direct hits at the airfields, including at Savasleyka. Satellite imagery of Borisoglebs also seemed to reveal some damage to facilities. In the video footage, defenders can be heard shooting at incoming threats.
It still remains to be seen if any of the Russian aircraft were damaged or destroyed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alluded to the attacks on the airfields in his nightly address to the nation, expressing his gratitude to the SBU, the armed forces, and the military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR.
“Thank you for the accurate, skillful and effective strikes on Russian airfields,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday, adding that “Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should.”
Despite the reach of Ukraine’s long-range drones and its ability to launch complex attacks into Russia, Kyiv still argues that it is hamstrung by restrictions on using Western weapons to strike inside Russia and is lobbying for the US and its NATO allies to drop such limitations.
“There are things that cannot be done with drones alone,” Zelenskyy said in his latest address. “We need other weapons — missile weapons. And we continue working with our partners on long-range decisions for Ukraine.”
“These are forward-looking decisions for our victory,” he said. “It has to be done.”
The massive drone attack on the airbases notably came as the Ukrainian military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region entered its ninth day.
The assault began on August 6, when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, accompanied by armored vehicles, poured across the border and advanced several miles into Russia. By Monday, Kyiv said that it had captured some 1,000 square kilometers, and by Tuesday, it said it controlled more than 70 settlements.
The Ukrainian offensive — described as the biggest attack on Russian soil by a foreign enemy since World War II — caught Moscow by surprise, and the intense fighting there has forced more than 100,000 civilians to flee the area.
As Moscow scrambles to respond to the shocking incursion, President Joe Biden told reporters on Tuesday that the attack is “creating a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
