- The Kyiv region faces the most emergency blackouts
- The United States will seek the help of executives in the energy assets of Ukraine
- Moscow: Ukrainian drones attack air bases in Russia, 3 dead
KYIV, Dec 6 (Reuters) – A drone attack on an airfield in Russia’s Kursk region set an oil storage tank on fire, a governor said on Tuesday, a day after Russia accused Ukraine of ‘bold drone attacks on two military airfields inside Russian territory. .
Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, told the Telegram messaging app that there were no casualties from the attack and that the fire was “localized”. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.
Russia’s defense ministry said earlier that Ukrainian drones attacked two air bases in Ryazan and Saratov in south-central Russia on Monday, killing three servicemen and wounding four, and damaging two planes.
Ukraine did not directly claim any of the attacks. If reversed, Monday’s strikes would be the deepest within Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24.
The New York Times, citing a senior Ukrainian official, said the drones involved in Monday’s attacks were launched from Ukrainian territory and that at least one of the attacks was carried out with the help of special forces close to the base.
Israeli satellite imaging company ImageSat International shared images it said showed burn marks and objects near a Tu-22M aircraft at the Dyagilevo air base.
Russia’s defense ministry said Monday’s attacks were acts of terrorism aimed at disabling long-range aircraft and that low-flying drones were shot down. The deaths were reported at the Ryazan base, 185 km (115 miles) southeast of Moscow.
Saratov is at least 600 km (370 mi) from the nearest Ukrainian territory. Russian commentators said on social media that if Ukraine could hit Russia so far, it could also hit Moscow.
Ukrainian military analyst Serhiy Zgurets said the air force bases attacked on Monday were the only facilities in Russia that could fully service the bombers used to launch attacks on Ukraine.
“It is still too early to say what is at stake here, but the ability of the armed forces of Ukraine to achieve military objectives deep in the territory of the Russian Federation has a very symbolic and important meaning,” he wrote to Espreso TV . web site
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv or Moscow on the latest report of a drone strike in Kursk.
NEW BAR
Russia responded to Monday’s attacks with a “massive attack on the military control system” and other targets using high-precision air and sea weapons in which all 17 targets were hit, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Ukraine warned that emergency blackouts would return to several regions as it repaired damage from missile attacks that it said destroyed homes and knocked out electricity.
The attacks, which plunged parts of Ukraine back into freezing darkness with temperatures below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), were the latest in weeks of attacks that hit critical infrastructure.
At least four people were killed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, adding that most of about 70 missiles were shot down.
“In many regions, there will have to be emergency shutdowns,” he said in a video address Monday afternoon. “We will do everything we can to restore stability.”
Russia has been regularly attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since early October in what it says is an attempt to degrade its military. Ukraine says these attacks are targeting civilians and constitute war crimes. Russia denies it.
The United States said it would hold a virtual meeting on Thursday with oil and gas executives to discuss how they can support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia would fail in its “current gambit of trying, in effect, to get the Ukrainian people to raise their hands”.
“The point is, unless Russia shows that it’s interested in meaningful diplomacy, it can’t go anywhere. If it does, we’ll be the first to be ready to help,” he told the Wall. Street Journal CEO Council in Washington.
Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and its allies accuse Russia of waging an unprovoked war to seize territory.
FIGHT IN DONETSK
Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that its forces had repelled Russian attacks on seven settlements in the Donetsk region, including the city of Bakhmut, over the past 24 hours.
Russian soldiers were trying to cut off roads to Bakhmut from the west and northwest, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on YouTube.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television late Monday that only about 12,000 people remained in Bakhmut, down from 80,000 before the war, and that there was no electricity or gas.
In Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, at least two people were killed and several houses were destroyed by a Russian missile attack on Monday, an official in the presidential office said.
Reuters video showed two bodies next to a damaged car in the village of Novosofiivka, about 25 km (16 miles) east of the city of Zaporizhzhia.
“My two neighbors were killed,” said 62-year-old Olha Troshyna. “They were by the car … sending off their son and daughter-in-law.”
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down more than 60 of the more than 70 missiles fired by Russia on Monday.
Reuters bureau reports; Written by Stephen Coates; edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan
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