After a drone attack on an airfield in Russia’s Kursk region set fire to an oil storage tank on Tuesday, December 6, a day after Russia accused Ukraine of bold drone attacks on two military airfields deep inside Russian territory, fears of a potential attack on Moscow are said to have grown among Kremlin officials.
There were no deaths from the attack, and the fire was “localised” according to Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
Russia’s defense ministry reported on Monday, December 5, that on Monday, Ukrainian drones attacked two air bases in south-central Russia, at Ryazan and Saratov, killing three military personnel, injuring four others, and damaging two aircraft.
The assaults would be the most in-depth inside of Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24 if Ukraine were behind them, yet none of the attacks have received a claim of credit from Kiev.
According to a senior Ukrainian source quoted in a New York Times investigation, the drones used in Monday’s attacks were launched from Ukrainian soil, and at least one of the strikes was carried out with the assistance of special troops stationed nearby the base.
The low-flying drones were shot down in the attacks on Monday, according to the Russian defense ministry, which were terroristic attempts to bring down long-range aircraft. 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of Moscow, on the Ryazan base, there were reported fatalities.
The distance from Saratov to the closest Ukrainian territory is roughly 600 kilometers (370 miles).
Russian media outlets reported that commentators on Russian television suggested that if Ukraine could strike that deeply within Russia, it would also be able to hit Moscow.
The air force sites attacked on Monday were the only ones in Russia that could properly maintain aircraft used to strike Ukraine, according to Serhiy Zgurets, a military analyst for Ukraine.
“It is still too early to say what is at issue here, but the ability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to reach military targets deep in the territory of the Russian Federation has a very symbolic and important meaning,” he wrote on the Espreso TV website.
With high-precision air and sea-based weaponry, Russia retaliated to Monday’s attacks with a “massive strike on the military control system” and other targets, hitting all 17 goals, according to the Russian defense ministry.
The attacks were the most recent in weeks of assaults on crucial infrastructure, plunging portions of Ukraine back into frigid darkness with temperatures below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).
Since the beginning of October, Russia has allegedly been constantly assaulting Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure in an effort to weaken its armed forces. According to Ukraine, these assaults are war crimes because they target civilians.
