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Ukraine has launched a “large-scale” drone attack against Russian military bombers in Siberia, striking more than 40 warplanes thousands of miles from its own territory, a security official has said, after smuggling the drones to the perimeter of the airfields hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds.
On the eve of peace talks, the drone attack on four separate airfields was part of a sharp ramping up of the three-year war, with Russia launching waves of drones at Ukraine, while Moscow said sabotage was to blame for two train derailments that left seven people dead.
Video from several military airfields across Russia showed destroyed aircraft and planes engulfed in flames, though the full extent of the damage remained unclear.
Among the more than 40 aircraft reportedly hit were Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers, which Russia uses to fire long-range missiles at Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine’s SBU domestic intelligence agency said it had hit Russian military planes worth a combined $7bn (£5.2bn) in the wave of drone strikes.
If the extent of the damage is confirmed, the attack would mark Ukraine’s most damaging drone strike of the war to date, amid an escalation in cross-border incursions before a new round of direct negotiations in Istanbul on Monday.
The Ukrainian official provided video footage to media reportedly showing the strikes, in which Reuters said several large aircraft that appeared to be Tu-95 bombers were on fire. The Tu-95 was originally developed to carry nuclear bombs and now launches cruise missiles.
Several Russian and Ukrainian media outlets reported that Ukraine carried out the operation by launching drones from lorries parked near military airfields deep inside Russia.
Ukrainian officials told the media that the operation – codenamed “Spiderweb” – had been in preparation for more than 18 months. The drones were first smuggled into Russia and later concealed under the roofs of small wooden sheds which were loaded on to trucks and driven to the perimeter of the airbases. The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said.
Photographs from Ukrainian security officials showed dozens of short-range quadrocopter drones piled up in an industrial facility. Other images showed the wooden sheds with their metal roofing panels removed, and the drones sitting in the cavities between roof beams.
A separate video posted on Russian Telegram channels appeared to show matching sheds on the back of a truck with the roof panels lying on the ground and at least two drones rising out of the top of the sheds and flying off.
Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russia’s security services, published footage that appeared to show men in Siberia’s Irkutsk region climbing on to one of the lorries in an attempt to prevent drones from launching.
Media reports said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had personally overseen the sophisticated operation.
In one clip, filmed at the burning airbase in Voskresenskin the Moscow region, a Russian service person is heard saying: “It’s fucked here,” as several bombers burn in the background.
Since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine has been chronically outgunned by Russia in terms of military firepower. But it has developed a nimble and sizeable fleet of attack drones used to strike Russia’s army and energy infrastructure.
The Belaya airbase targeted on Sunday in Irkutsk oblast is more than 2,500 miles (4,000km) from Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed that several of its military aircraft “caught fire” in the attack in the regions of Murmansk and Irkutsk. It added that there were no casualties and that several “participants” had been arrested.
In March, Ukraine said it had developed a new drone with a range of 3,000km, without providing further details.
Earlier on Sunday, Russian investigators said they believed “explosions” had caused two bridges in the border regions of Kursk and Bryansk to collapse overnight, derailing trains and killing at least seven people and injuring dozens. No one has claimed responsibility.
Russian investigators were investigating the bridge blasts as “acts of terrorism”, according to state media. The Kremlin said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had been briefed throughout the night.
Separately, tracks on the Unecha-Zhecha section of railway in Russia’s Bryansk region were damaged without casualties, the national operator, Russian Railways, said.
Russia has been hit by dozens of sabotage attacks since Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine in 2022, many targeting its vast railway network. Kyiv says railways are targeted because they transport troops and weaponry.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 472 drones overnight, the highest nightly total of the war so far, as well as seven missiles. Ukraine’s army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit.
Ukraine had previously refused to commit to attending a new round of direct talks in Turkey but on Sunday Zelenskyy said a delegation led by his defence minister, Rustem Umerov, would be in Istanbul. “I have also defined our position before the Monday meeting in Istanbul,” which includes priorities to reach “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children, Zelenskyy said on social media.
The US president, Donald Trump, has put pressure on both sides to end the war and threatened to walk away if they do not, potentially leaving Kyiv entirely dependent on European aid.
Reuters reported Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul would present a proposed roadmap for reaching a lasting peace settlement, with the current frontline as the starting point for negotiations about territory.
Citing a copy of the document laying out the Ukrainian position, it said there would be no future restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow’s forces, and reparations for Ukraine.
Last year, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war, demanding Ukraine drop its Nato membership ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
