Russia said it thwarted one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes to date in western Russia on Wednesday, shooting down drones in at least six regions, and destroyed a Ukrainian naval strike on the annexed Crimean peninsula.
Russian military aircraft were damaged and civil aviation disrupted in the drone strikes, Russian officials said, citing the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions as targets.
The most significant attack appeared to take place in Pskov, about 411 miles north of the Ukrainian border, near the borders with Estonia and Latvia, where Russian officials said four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged.
Rescuers work at a site of buildings damaged by a Russian drone and missile attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the Kiev region, Ukraine, August 30, 2023. via REUTERS
Ukraine, which has yet to achieve major success in its summer ground counteroffensive, has deeply attacked Russia in recent months, including an attack on the Kremlin in May and numerous drone strikes against civilian targets in Moscow.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction with them.
Images posted by the governor of Pskov on Telegram showed smoke billowing from a large fire while sirens and an explosion were heard.
A column of smoke is illuminated by a flash of light amid a drone attack in Pskov, Russia. MIKHAIL VEDERNIKOV via REUTERS
Other reports on Telegram channels showed anti-aircraft systems in action around the city, which is just 20 miles east of the Estonian border.
The Tass news agency, citing emergency services, said four Il-76 transport planes, long the workhorse of the Russian military, were damaged at the military airfield.
Two of the planes “burst into flames”, it added.
Firefighters put out a fire after a Russian rocket attack in kyiv, Ukraine, on August 30, 2023.AP
Civilian flights were canceled at the local airport.
The airspace around Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was briefly closed, TASS reported.
Russia said Ukrainian drones tried to attack a television tower in the Bryansk region. No victims were reported.
A man checks a damaged window of a building that was damaged after a missile attack in kyiv, August 30, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
A Russian plane also destroyed four Ukrainian speedboats carrying up to 50 paratroopers in an operation in the Black Sea, the military said.
Russia launched its own airstrikes on Wednesday morning, killing at least two people in kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Rescuers work on the roof of a residential building that was damaged after a missile attack in kyiv on August 30, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
MORE AID FROM THE UNITED STATES
The drone strikes came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new military assistance package to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February. 2022.
The package includes additional mine clearance equipment, missiles for air defense, as well as ammunition for artillery and small arms, Blinken said in a statement.
Rescuers work at another site of a residential building severely damaged by a Russian drone and missile attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the Kiev region, Ukraine, August 30, 2023. via REUTERS
Ukraine is using large quantities of ammunition in some of the most intense fighting of the war as it presses its summer counteroffensive in the south and east, where Russian forces are deeply entrenched.
On Tuesday, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried in a leafy cemetery outside St. Petersburg, six days after his death in an unexplained plane crash north of Moscow.
Prigozhin, two senior lieutenants of his Wagner group and four bodyguards were among 10 people who died when their Embraer Legacy 600 private plane crashed under unexplained circumstances on August 23.
A local resident looks at fragments of a Russian rocket in a city park after a rocket attack in kyiv, Ukraine, on August 30, 2023. AP
He died two months after organizing a brief mutiny against the Russian defense establishment, in the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s government since he came to power in 1999.
Moscow says it is investigating the crash and has denied any involvement, but in Washington White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made her strongest statement yet about the possibility that Putin directed the assassination.
“We all know that the Kremlin has a long history of assassinating opponents,” he said. “It’s very clear what happened here.”
A woman removes debris from her balcony at a residential building that was damaged after a missile attack in kyiv on August 30, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Russia informed Brazil’s aircraft investigation authority that it would not investigate the crash of the Brazilian-made Embraer plane under international rules “for the time being,” the Brazilian agency told Reuters on Tuesday.
Russia’s aviation authority is not required to follow international investigation protocols, as the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg was domestic.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn