Russian airport attacked from own territory, Ukraine says

AFP | Washington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Ukraine’s military intelligence said yesterday that a recent drone attack on an airport in northwestern Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory.

The claim, falling on the first day of the school year, came as President Vladimir Putin told Russian students that their country was “invincible” and police in Kyiv scrambled to respond to bomb threats in schools.

The attack this week on Pskov airport some 700 kilometres (more than 400 miles) from Ukraine marked the latest strike to rock Russian territory since Kyiv vowed to “return” the conflict to Moscow in July.

“The drones used to attack the ‘Kresty’ air base in Pskov were launched from Russia,” Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on social media yesterday.

“Four Russian IL-76 military transport planes were hit as a result of the attack. Two were destroyed and two were seriously damaged,” he added. Budanov said the aircraft had been used by the defence ministry to transport troops and cargo.

The Kremlin said this week that military experts were working to find out which routes the drones were taking in order “to prevent such situations in the future”. Asked about Ukrainian claims yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment and instead deferred questions to the defence ministry.

The region of Pskov, which was also targeted by drones in late May, is surrounded by NATO members Estonia and Latvia to its west and Belarus to its south.

‘Calm’ urged after bomb scare Budanov’s comments came hours after Russian air defences destroyed a drone approaching Moscow, the city’s mayor said, a day after a similar attack on the capital. Russian media reported that air traffic at Moscow’s Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports had been temporarily halted.

An uptick in aerial assaults have hit the capital’s financial district, ripped holes in commercial buildings and even struck the Kremlin but officials have dismissed the increase in attacks.

The reports of bomb threats in Ukraine’s capital coincided with the start of the country’s academic year, as the education ministry said nearly four million students were returning to school, both online and in person.

Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022 had damaged or destroyed thousands of schools.

Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of the western city of Lviv, said pupils will be learning to fly drones, releasing a picture of students behind computers.

“This is our new reality,” he wrote on social media alongside images of children holding controllers and sitting in front of monitors simulating drone flights.

Putin meanwhile congratulated Russian students on the beginning of the new school year, telling them it was impossible to defeat Russia as Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine grinds through its nineteenth month.