Drone attack in Pskov damages several Russian transport aircraft
An airfield in the Russian city of Pskov - near the border with Estonia and Latvia - has been the target of a drone attack that has destroyed several military transport planes, Russian media reported. The regional governor, Mikhail Vedernikov, also reported on social media that the defence ministry was "repelling a drone attack on Pskov airport". This region, in the northwest of the country, has already been attacked by drones at the end of May.
As a result of the latter attack, Vedernikov ordered the suspension of all flights from the city's airport for the day in order to "assess the damage". Moscow also closed the airspace of its international terminal at Vnukovo following the attack.
However, Pskov was not the only place on Russian territory to suffer drone attacks. The Russian Defence Ministry also reported similar incidents in the Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. Ukraine frequently launches attacks on Russian territory - including sending drones into the centre of the capital - although this latest wave of attacks has come to be considered one of the most significant since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the Russian foreign ministry, these attacks "will not go unpunished", adding that the Ukrainians could not have come this far without Western help. The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, do not normally refer to attacks on Russian soil, although they stress that they have the right to attack military targets. According to President Volodimir Zelensky, such attacks are "inevitable, natural and absolutely just" as long as the war in Ukraine continues.
Regarding the latest attack on the Pskov airfield, Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) spokesman Andriy Yusov confirmed that "four IL-76 transport planes were destroyed" and cannot be "repaired". "In addition, several others are damaged, but the information is being verified," he told Reuters.
The attacks come shortly after fresh bombardments against Kiev, one of the heaviest in recent months. "Kiev has not experienced such a brutal attack since the spring. The enemy launched a massive combined attack using drones and missiles," Serhiy Popko, head of the Ukrainian capital's military administration, said on Telegram. Russia also said the air force had destroyed four Ukrainian military ships carrying up to 50 soldiers in the Black Sea.
These developments come days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new military aid package for Ukraine earlier this week. The new shipment includes additional demining equipment, air defence missiles, artillery munitions and small arms, Blinken said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in St Petersburg, the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last week in a plane crash along with other senior members of the mercenary organisation, has been sent off. Russia has already said it will not allow an international investigation into the crash, although the West has pointed to the possible involvement of President Vladimir Putin in the death of Prigozhin, who last June led an uprising against the Kremlin.