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https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-drones-attack-russian-air-base-near-estonia-2023-08-30/

Ukrainian drones strike six Russian regions, destroy planes at airfield
Reuters
August 30, 20237:41 AM PDTUpdated 4 hours ago

Summary
Companies
Four transport planes damaged at airfield in Pskov
Two killed in air strikes on Kyiv
Strikes bring war home for Russians

Aug 30 (Reuters) - Ukrainian drones struck targets in at least six
regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where
they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the broadest volleys
yet of Kyiv's campaign to turn the tables on Moscow.

Russian officials described attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk,
Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. The Russian foreign ministry
said the attacks would "not go unpunished" and the drones could not have
reached so far into Russian territory without Western help.

In northern Russia, more than 600 km (400 miles) from Ukraine, a huge
fire erupted at a military airfield in the city of Pskov, where elite
paratroopers are garrisoned. Tass news agency reported at least four
giant Il-76 transport planes were damaged, two of which had "burst into
flames".

The attacks coincided with Russia's most severe air strikes on Ukraine's
capital for months. Authorities in Kyiv reported at least two people had
been killed as debris from intercepted missiles fell in four locations.

Reuters captured footage of a fireball falling out of the night sky
close to a supermarket, detonating in a huge explosion that lit up
nearby apartment blocks. Moscow said it hit command and intelligence
targets.

In Russia, the governor of Pskov posted video on Telegram showing a huge
fire with the sounds of sirens and an explosion at the air base. Other
video posted online showed anti-aircraft systems in action around the
city, which is just 32 km (20 miles) east of Russia's border with
NATO-member Estonia.

Moscow said it had thwarted all the attacks on Russia. Russia typically
describes all Ukrainian drone strikes as unsuccessful, regardless of the
damage on the ground.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was working out where the
drones were launched from to prevent further strikes. President Vladimir
Putin had been informed immediately, as would be the case in any such
"massive attacks", Peskov said.

Kyiv confirmed the Russian planes had been destroyed in Pskov, without
commenting on the nature of the incident. It generally withholds comment
on strikes on territory inside Russia though it says it has a right to
hit military targets.

"Yes, four IL-76 transport planes were destroyed in Pskov at an
airfield, they are beyond repair. Also, several other of those
(aircraft) are damaged, but the information is being checked," Andriy
Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s GUR military agency, told Reuters.

Ukraine's Western allies generally forbid Kyiv from using weapons they
supply to attack Russia but say Kyiv has a right to carry out such
strikes with its own weapons.

Among the other attacks in Russia, Moscow said Ukrainian drones had
tried to attack a TV tower over the Bryansk region. No casualties were
reported.

Moscow also said its aircraft had destroyed four Ukrainian fast-attack
boats carrying up to 50 paratroopers on the Black Sea and its forces had
repelled attacks by enemy drones. Reuters could not independently
confirm this.

Attacks on Russia in recent weeks, including repeated drone strikes on
central Moscow, have brought the war home to many Russians for the first
time, even as Ukrainians have spent the past year and a half in constant
peril from air strikes.

[1/3]A plume of smoke is illuminated by a flash of light amid a drone
attack in Pskov, Russia, in this still image obtained from social media
video released August 30, 2023. TELEGRAM / MIKHAIL VEDERNIKOV/via
REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights

"So long as Putin remains president, the war will continue. Pulling
Russia deeper and deeper into the abyss of chaos," Mykhailo Poldolyak, a
senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on X.

Moscow has relentlessly pounded Ukrainian cities with long range
missiles and drone strikes throughout the war. Thousands of Ukrainian
civilians have been killed.

Ukraine said its air defences had shot down 28 Russian missiles and 15
out of 16 drones fired overnight.

"Kyiv has not experienced such a powerful attack since spring. The enemy
launched a massive, combined attack using drones and missiles," Serhiy
Popko, the head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram.

Ukrainian forces have been conducting a summer offensive for nearly
three months. They have yet to achieve a breakthrough of Russia's
heavily mined and fortified defenses, although they said in the past
week they had finally penetrated the first main defensive line.

PRIGOZHIN BURIED
On the outskirts of St Petersburg, followers of Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss
of Russia's Wagner private army, paid tribute at a leafy cemetery where
he was buried six days after being killed in a plane crash. A tribute
left beside flowers read: "To be a warrior is to live forever".

"It is a big loss for Russia," said Sergei Abeltsev, a former lawmaker
from an ultra-nationalist party, who visited the grave. "As always - the
realisation of the loss will only come later."

The Kremlin said foul play was one of the causes being investigated for
the crash.

"It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including
the version - you know what we are talking about – let's say, a
deliberate atrocity," Kremlin spokesman Peskov said.

Prigozhin, two top Wagner lieutenants and four bodyguards were among 10
people who died when his private jet crashed in unexplained
circumstances on Aug. 23, two months after Wagner marched on Moscow in a
brief mutiny.

Putin had called the mutiny treason but had promised Prigozhin he would
escape punishment.

The Kremlin has rejected as an "absolute lie" Western suggestions that
Putin was responsible.

"We all know that the Kremlin has a long history of killing opponents,"
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "It's very clear
what happened here."

Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Anna Pruchnicka and Reuters bureaux Writing
by Peter Graff Editing by Philippa Fletcher

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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