(Daily Mail) Vladimir Putin suffered his worst night of bombardment of the war as Ukraine hit back at Russia with a series of drone strikes deep into enemy territory.
Russian military aircraft were damaged and civilian aviation was disrupted in the drone attacks, Russian officials said, citing Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions as targeted, as well as Russian-occupied Crimea.
Most of the drones were reportedly shot out of the skies by Russian air defences.
But the most significant attack saw drones strike Pskov airport in western Russia just 20 miles from the border of Estonia – resulting in the destruction of two heavy military Il-76 transport planes and damage to two more, reports said.
Footage shared on social media showed huge explosions lighting up the night’s sky over the airport that sits 40 miles from the neighbouring Baltic, NATO and European Union states of Estonia and Latvia.
The strikes came as Ukraine also suffered a massive overnight attack, described as the ‘most powerful’ barrage of missiles since the spring.
Authorities said two people were killed, as Russia claimed it destroyed four Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 soldiers.
The sky is illuminated by fire in Pskov following an alleged drone attack that is understood to have destroyed two heavy military Il-76 transport planes and damaged two more
Footage from Pskov appears to show the wreckage of a destroyed plane on the tarmac in Pskov
An image shared by regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov of the attack at Pskov airport. He said the Russian defence ministry was ‘repelling a drone attack’
Flames and smoke are seen in the distance of this photograph looking out over the city of Pskov, Russia, overnight after a suspected drone attack targeted an airport
Ukraine, which has yet to achieve a major success in its summer ground counteroffensive, has struck deep into Russia in recent months, including an attack on the Kremlin in May and numerous drone attacks on civilian targets in Moscow.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction over them.
Confirming the attack on the Princess Olga Pskov Airport, a Russian emergencies ministry source said: ‘As a result of a drone attack, four Il-76 planes were damaged. A fire broke out. Two aircraft are engulfed in flames.’
The planes are used to transport military equipment and troops to the war zone.
Officials announced the closure of the airport – a military airbase that doubles as a civilian airport – throughout today as runway damage was assessed.
The strike in northwest Russia was almost 500 miles from the nearest Ukrainian territory, demonstrating a new reach by Kyiv in its UAV attacks.
Footage of the Pskov attack filmed from around 1.2 miles away shows explosions lighting up the sky; videos believed to have been filmed later show huge fires burning.
Russian officials have claimed that the attack is being conducted using drones; regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov said in a statement that defence forces were ‘repelling a drone attack’.
He shared the message, along with video footage of a burning fire in Pskov, on his personal channel on the messaging app Telegram. According to initial reports, he said, there were no injuries.
TASS, quoting emergency services, said four Il-76 transport aircraft, long the workhorse of the Russian military, were damaged at the military airfield.
‘As a result of the drone attack, four Il-76 aircraft were damaged. A fire broke out and two planes burst into flames,’ TASS reported.
The airspace around Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was also closed early on Wednesday, TASS news agency quoted Russian aviation officials as saying.
The attack came as Kyiv was targeted early Wednesday by the ‘most powerful’ barrage of missiles and drones since the spring, authorities said, with two people reported dead, as Russia claimed it destroyed four Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 soldiers.
More than 20 missiles and drones were ‘destroyed by air defence forces’ overnight, the Kyiv City Military Administration wrote on Telegram, describing the aerial assault as ‘the most powerful’ to hit the city since the spring.
An AFP reporter heard at least three loud explosions in the centre of Kyiv around 5:00 am (0200 GMT).
Two people had died as a result of falling debris, Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
Another person was injured and was being given medical assistance, he said.
Kyiv was also targeted early Wednesday by the ‘most powerful’ barrage of missiles and drones since the spring, authorities said, with two people reported dead
Smoke rises in the sky over the city after a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine August 30
A view shows at the site of an area hit by a Russian drone and missile strikes strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine August 30
Firefighters put out a fire after a Russian rocket attack in Kyiv, August 30
Rescuers work at a site of buildings damaged overnight by Russian drone and missiles strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, August 30
A local resident looks at the fragments of a Russian rocket in a city park after a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, August 30
A woman stands inside a grocery store, damaged by a shock wave of a missile strike in Kyiv
Russian forces had launched groups of Iranian-made Shahed attack drones at the capital from different directions, and launched missiles from aircraft, the Kyiv city military administration said.
And law enforcement cordoned off forested territory where tangled pieces of metal had landed following the overnight attack.
Russia systematically targeted Ukrainian cities early in the invasion launched last year but massive strikes have lessened as Moscow’s stockpiles depleted and Ukraine bolstered its air defences.
Earlier, Moscow’s defence ministry said a Russian aircraft ‘destroyed four high-speed military boats’ in the Black Sea around midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT Tuesday).
The boats had been carrying ‘landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people,’ the ministry said on Telegram.
It did not give details on exactly where in the Black Sea the incident took place.
Early Wednesday, Russian defences also repelled a ‘seaborne drone attack near’ near Sevastopol Bay in Crimea, the local Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev was cited as saying by the state-run TASS news agency.
Sevastopol is the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Both Ukraine and Russia have ramped up activity around the strategic waterway after a United Nations-brokered deal to ensure safe navigation for grain ships collapsed last month.
In recent weeks, Kyiv has attacked Russian ships in its waters and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Last week, Ukraine said its forces had flown the country’s flag in Crimea during a ‘special operation’ to mark its second wartime Independence Day.
Moscow’s defence ministry also said last week that one of its jets destroyed a Ukrainian ‘reconnaissance boat’ near Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea.
The drone attacks came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of military assistance to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour on February 24, 2022.
The package includes additional mine-clearing equipment, missiles for air defence, plus ammunition for artillery and small arms, Blinken said in a statement.
Ukraine is using vast amounts of ammunition in some of the heaviest fighting of the war as its presses its summer counter-offensive in the south and east, where Russian forces are deeply entrenched.
Pictured: Four Russian military Il-76 cargo planes are seen in this file photo. It is understood that two of the planes were destroyed overnight at an airport in Pskov, and two more damaged
Regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov (seen here on the right with Russian president Vladimir Putin) said there were no injuries reported in the attack on Pskov
On Tuesday the Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried in a leafy cemetery on the outskirts of St Petersburg, six days after he was killed in an unexplained plane crash north of Moscow.
Prigozhin, two top lieutenants of his Wagner group and four bodyguards were among 10 people who died when his Embraer Legacy 600 private jet crashed in unexplained circumstances on Aug. 23.
He died two months after staging a brief mutiny against the Russian defence establishment, in the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule since he rose 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 gave her strongest statement yet about the possibility that Putin directed the killing.
‘We all know that the Kremlin has a long history of killing opponents,’ she said. ‘It’s very clear what happened here.’
Meanwhile, the president of Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the south-west, predicted that her country would be the next victim of a would-be Russian incursion like that suffered by Ukraine almost 18 months ago.
Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova. She has warned that Putin will try to crush Moldova next if it succeeds in claiming Ukraine
President Sandu with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. She has called on ‘strong’ countries to continue supporting the beleaguered nation in its defence against Russia
