Three drone strikes in two days. On Tuesday, the airport in the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, was attacked. A thick, black column of smoke can be seen from afar. Earlier, Dyagilevo airfield in Ryazan region and Engels airfield in Saratov region were attacked. Three soldiers were killed.
Both airports are more than 500 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Strategic bombers used in previous missile strikes against Ukraine are based in Saratov.
Moscow blames Kiev for the attacks on the airports. Ukraine has not yet commented on this. President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) had declared in June that Russia would not be attacked. The situation has changed dramatically in the meantime, explains Marcel Berni, a strategy expert at the ETH Zurich Military Academy. For weeks, the Russians have been bombing power plants in Ukraine in particular, and almost half of the electricity grid has now been damaged.
“This is also a signal to the Ukrainian people”
Berni zu Blick: “Ukraine is attacking the military infrastructure in the heart of Russia to eliminate the resources needed for the Russian air war.” It can also be used to demonstrate strength. “This is also a sign to the Ukrainian people that Ukraine can now strike deep into Russia to counter Russia’s missile and drone war.”
The US is supplying weapons to Ukraine on the condition that they do not directly attack Russia. Can US President Joe Biden (80) stop deliveries? ETH expert Berni does not assume it. “So far, the Americans have deliberately only supplied weapons that have a limited attack distance.”
The attacks caused no major damage. “Such attacks are nothing more than pinpricks, but demonstratively important. This is to show that Russia is not invulnerable,” Wolfgang Richter (73), a retired colonel and expert on security policy and Eastern Europe, told Blick.
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Dominik Knill (63), president of the Swiss Officers’ Society, is of the same opinion. Therefore, the attacks would have little impact on the war. “Putin sees collateral damage in these sabotage operations, which is painful in the region, but hardly relevant to the further course of the military operation.”
After the three attacks within two days, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin (70) convened his country’s Security Council on Tuesday. Senior security officials discussed with President Putin how to ensure Russia’s “internal security” after Moscow classified the attacks as a threat, the Kremlin said. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said the government would take “necessary measures” to prevent such attacks in the future.