According to officials, drone attacks on several Russian military bases are the start of peace talks with Ukraine, which are scheduled to begin in Istanbul on Monday.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military installations in five different regions, which set off fire on several aircraft.
The regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur were the site of the attacks. According to the ministry, air defenses resisted the assaults in Murmansk and Irkutsk, but only two, respectively.
The ministry claimed that several aircraft caught fire when FPV drones launched from areas close to airfields in the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions.
No injuries were reported despite the fires being extinguished. According to the ministry, some of the attackers had been detained.
According to officials, attacks targeted Olenya airbase in south Murmansk and Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, which are located about 4,300 kilometers (2,700 miles) from Ukraine and about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) away from Ukraine.
These drones were launched from locations close to the airbases, according to local officials and witnesses on the ground. That implies that there were a number of people inside Russia involved in an elaborate operation, which was most likely carried out by the Ukrainians, according to Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, who was based in Moscow.
According to Jabbari, this is the largest attack we’ve seen in one day at several Russian military airbases since the start of the war in February 2022, noting that Russia’s strategic air bombers have been launching attacks on Ukrainian targets over the past three years.
Meanwhile, a source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was cited in a report from several local media outlets in Ukraine, including those obtained by state news agency Ukrinform, saying that the coordinated attacks inside Russia were “aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front.”
They claimed the SBU carried out the operation using smuggled drones hidden inside trucks and deep into Russia. According to the reports, at least 41 Russian heavy bombs were killed at four airbases, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had personally overseen the “Spiderweb” operation, which had been planned for more than a year and a half.
According to John Hendren, a reporter for Al Jazeera from Kyiv, the attack is “an audacious strike, one that Ukraine has been patiently and eagerly awaiting,” and it comes after Russian airstrikes into Ukraine have dramatically increased over the past few weeks.
A highway bridge in the neighboring Ukraine of Bryansk, Russia, was torpedoed while a passenger train traveling to Moscow was crossing it with 388 passengers and injured at least seven people.
No one has yet apologised. Russian authorities acknowledged calling the incident an “act of terrorism,” but they did not immediately accuse Ukraine.
Russia announced further expansion into the Sumy region of Ukraine in May, and open-source pro-Ukrainian maps revealed that it had taken 450 square kilometers (174 square miles) of Ukrainian land, its most rapid monthly advance in at least six months.
The nightly total of 472 drones launched at Ukraine by Moscow is the highest ever nightly total of the conflict, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. The Air Force reported that Russia had also launched seven missiles.
As Ukraine confirmed that it would send a delegation to Istanbul under the direction of its defense minister Rustem Umerov for talks with Russian officials on Monday, both parties sharply increased their attacks. The meeting, which was organized by US President Donald Trump, was fueled by his demand for a quick resolution of the three-year conflict.
Zelenskyy said he had defined the Ukrainian delegation’s position on the talks after previously expressing doubts about the seriousness of the Russian side’s participation in the meeting.
He claimed on social media that “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and kidnapped children were top priorities.
Russia has stated in advance that it has come up with its own peace terms, but it has not. A Turkish suggestion for the leaders’ meeting to be held at the leaders’ level was also rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
