On Wednesday morning, Russia announced that Ukraine launched drones against targets in six Russian regions, including an attack on an airport in the western city of Pskov – located near the borders of Latvia and Estonia – where military transport aircraft were reported damaged amid explosions and a huge fire.
The Russian defence ministry reported on Wednesday morning that drones were also shot down over the surrounding areas of Moscow, Orlov, Bryansk, Ryazan, and Kaluga in what may be the largest drone attack on Russian territory since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
In addition, on Wednesday morning, Russian launched a missile and drone attack against Kyiv, which was referred to as the “most powerful strike” on the Ukrainian capital in months. According to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, two persons were killed and one was injured.
Ukrainian air defences destroyed more than 20 missiles and drones involved in the attack and two security guards were killed by falling debris, according to authorities.
“Kyiv had not experienced such a powerful attack since spring… In total, more than 20 enemy targets were destroyed by air defence forces,” the Kyiv City Military Administration wrote on Telegram.
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Russian state news agency TASS, quoting emergency services, said earlier on Wednesday that four Il-76 heavy transport aircraft, which have long been the workhorse of the Russian military, were damaged at an airfield in Russia’s western Pskov region, located roughly 660km (some 411 miles) north of Ukrainian border.
‘The defence ministry is repelling a drone attack in Pskov’s airport,’ the regional Governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on the Telegram messaging app, posting a video of a large fire, with sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.
Vedernikov, who was at the scene of the attack, said that ‘according to preliminary information, there are no victims’.
The scale of the damage to the airport was being assessed, he said.
Video footage posted on social media, reportedly from the airport, showed thick black smoke rising over the airport with residents reporting hearing loud explosions and gunfire.
Reports on Telegram channels said anti-aircraft systems were in action around the Russian city, which is located close to European Union member countries Latvia and Estonia.
Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was also closed briefly early on Wednesday, TASS reported, citing Russian aviation officials. The airport in Moscow was ordered closed amid reports that Russia’s military was repelling a drone attack on Pskov airport, the news agency reported.