Ukrainian drones target Russian airbases in unprecedented operation

Ukrainian drones hit Russian airbases in largest single-day attack since war began, targeting strategic bombers.

Officials say multiple military airbases have come under drone attacks in Russia in a major operation taking place ahead of peace talks with Ukraine due to start in Istanbul on Monday.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday, causing several aircraft to catch fire.

The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said.

“In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire,” the ministry said.

The fires were extinguished and no casualties were reported. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said.

Officials said that attacks targeted the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, about 4,300km (2,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and the Olenya airbase in south Murmansk, some 1,800km (1,100 miles) from Ukraine.

“According to witnesses on the ground and local officials, these drones were launched from sites near the airbases. That means this was an elaborate operation, most likely by the Ukrainians, that involved a number of people inside Russia,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said, reporting from Moscow.

“This is the single largest attack that we’ve seen in one day across multiple military airbases inside Russia since the war began in February of 2022,” Jabbari said, noting that the airbases are home to Russia’s strategic air bombers, which have been used to attack targets across Ukraine over the past three years.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, multiple local media reports, including those by state news agency Ukrinform, cited a source within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) saying the coordinated attacks inside Russia were “aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front”.

They said the operation was carried out by the SBU using drones smuggled deep into Russia and hidden inside trucks. At least 41 Russian heavy bombers at four airbases were hit, the reports said, adding that the operation, dubbed “Spiderweb”, had been prepared for over a year and a half, and it was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, said it’s “an audacious strike, one that Ukraine has been waiting a long time and patiently to deliver, and it’s come after Russian air strikes into Ukraine have dramatically accelerated over the past couple of weeks”.

Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up while a passenger train heading to Moscow was crossing it with 388 people on board.

No one has yet claimed responsibility. Russian officials said they were treating the incident as an “act of terrorism” but did not immediately accuse Ukraine.

The developments came as Russia also said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and as open-source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450sq km (174sq miles) of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.

Moscow launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the Air Force said.

Both parties sharply ramped up their attacks as Ukraine confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul led by its Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials. Turkiye is hosting the meeting, which was spurred by US President Donald Trump’s push for a quick deal to end the three-year war.

Zelenskyy, who previously voiced scepticism about the seriousness of the Russian side in engaging in Monday’s meeting, said he had defined the Ukrainian delegation’s position on the talks.

Priorities included “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children, he said on social media.

Russia has said it has formulated its own peace terms, but refused to divulge them in advance. Russian President Vladimir Putin also ruled out a Turkish proposal for the meeting to be held at the leaders’ level.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies