Ukrainian drones have targeted an air base in the Tver region, shortly after drone attacks struck one of Russia’s largest power plants located nearby, according to local Telegram channels and news outlets.
Explosions were reported by local residents at the Migalovo airfield, which houses Russia’s Antonov aircraft, Ukrainian publication 24TV reported.
Russia has been hit with waves of drone strikes since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with some attacks reaching deep behind its lines. Many strikes have targeted military airfields, ammunition depots and warehouses.
Ukraine rarely directly claims responsibility for attacks on Russian soil, but the Kremlin has accused Kyiv of trying to carry out terrorist strikes using drones.
Videos posted on social media late on Monday appear to show the moment Ukrainian drones attempted to attack the Russian air base.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Ukrainian military learn to fly drones with bombs attached on May 12, 2023, in the Lviv region of Ukraine. Drones targeted a Russian air base in the Tver region late Monday, local Telegram channels said.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
“Small arms fire on Ukrainian drones that attacked the Migalovo airfield in the Tver region,” the Military Informant Telegram channel reported.
“Drones attacked Tver, presumably a military airfield was hit,” the ASTRA Telegram channel, a project run by independent Russian journalists, said. “Local publics [sic] report a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack in the Migalovo area.”
“Ukrainian UAVs attempted to attack an airfield in Tver. According to Mash, at least one drone flying towards the Migalovo airfield was spotted by local residents at 22:50,” Mash, a Russian online newspaper, said on Telegram. “The drone was fired at with machine guns (on video), air defense is working. There is no official information yet.”
The purported attack came after Ukrainian drones on Sunday targeted the Konakovo Power Station in Tver.
That attack caused a fire at the facility, according to a Russian Telegram channel cited by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs.
“Konakovo Power Station, one of the largest power plants in the USSR and the Russian Federation, located deep in the Russian rear, which burned today as a result of a Ukrainian airstrike, is not only a strong spectacle (I did not think I would live to see such a thing), but also a demonstration of new, increased capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a new level of problems for the Russian Federation,” the Telegram channel said.
“The drones hit the gas distribution unit of the station and it powerfully exploded and burst into flames.”
The power station was attacked as Ukrainian drones reportedly targeted 16 Russian regions, marking Kyiv’s largest attack on Russian soil in the war so far, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that “it is entirely justified for Ukrainians to respond to Russian terror by any means necessary to stop it.”
“Every day and night, our cities and villages endure enemy attacks,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Just in the past week, Russia has launched over 160 missiles of various types, 780 guided aerial bombs, and 400 strike UAVs of different kinds against our people.”
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