Russia has been attacked three times on its own territory in just two days. Airports were attacked every time. On Monday first Dyagilevo airport in the Ryazan region and Engels airport in the Saratov region. The place in Kursk followed on Tuesday.
Ukraine has thus proven that it is capable of carrying out long-range attacks on Russia without Western support. Military expert Marcel Berni sees the attacks as “a sign to the Ukrainian people that Ukraine can now strike deep into Russia to counter Russia’s missile and drone war.”
Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin (70) called an emergency meeting of his Security Council as a result. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 55, said the government will take “necessary” measures to protect the country from Ukrainian attacks.
1000 kilometers range and 1100 km/h fast
The Russians are working hard to determine how the drones got this far in the first place. It is already clear to Moscow that old drones from the Soviet Union have been used. Specifically: several modified Tupolev M-141 from the 1970s or 1980s, as reported by “Bild”. It has a range of 1000 kilometers, weighs six tons and is 14 meters long. Top speed: 1100 km/h.
Reaching the attacked airfields in Saratov and Ryazan, which are 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, would not be a problem with the monster drone. Even an attack on the Russian capital Moscow is possible.
Ukraine is working on its own drone
It is also possible that Ukraine used drones from China or homemade models for the attacks. The slow Chinese plane makes it easier to evade Russian radar. Their disadvantage: you can attach explosive charges to them, but only slightly.
Maybe the Ukrainians used a new weapon. Shortly before the explosions in Saratov and Ryazan, the Ukrainian state-owned company Ukroboronprom announced that development of a Ukrainian attack drone was nearing completion. The range of the drone is “about 1000 kilometers”, the weight of the warhead is 75 kilograms. More details are not yet known.
A spokeswoman for the company said they hope to test the drone in combat soon.
“Soon there will be no more safe zones in Russia”
Officially, Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks. But more attacks could follow. “Soon we will be able to reach all destinations in Russia, including Siberia,” the Financial Times quoted an anonymous source of the Ukrainian government’s advisers as saying. “Soon there will be no more safe zones in Russia.”
For weeks, the Russians have been bombing power plants in Ukraine in particular, and almost half of the electricity grid has now been damaged. The drone strikes are seen by the Ukrainians as a response to these bombings.