Ukraine destroys $11b worth of Russian bombers in surprise drone attack

An SBU statement posted on the Telegram messaging app estimated the damage caused by the assaults at $US7 billion.

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“Thirty-four per cent of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation were hit,” the SBU said on Telegram.

Unverified video and pictures posted on Russian social media showed Russian strategic bombers on fire at the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

Regional governor Igor Kobzev said there had been a drone attack on a military unit near the village of Sredny, which is near the Belaya base, though he did not specify what the target was. He said the drones had been launched from a truck.

The Irkutsk region attack was the first time a drone assault had been mounted by Ukraine so far from the front lines, which are more than 4300 km away.

That is beyond the range of the long-range strike drones or ballistic missiles Ukraine has in its arsenal, so required a special scheme to get the drones close enough to their target.

Photographs shared with Reuters by the Ukrainian security official showed dozens of short-range quadrocopter drones piled up in an industrial facility. The official said these were the same devices used in the attack.

Other images shared by the official showed the wooden sheds with their metal roofing panels removed, and the drones sitting in the cavities between roof beams.

Separate video posted on Russian Telegram channels, which has not been verified by Reuters, appeared to show matching sheds on the back of a truck.

The roof panels can be seen lying on the ground next to the truck, and the video footage shows at least two drones rising out of the top of the sheds and flying off.

The Russian online media outlet that posted the video, Baza, said in a caption that it was filmed in the district near the Belaya air base.

The Irkutsk region air base hosts Tupolev Tu-22M supersonic long-range strategic bombers, a type of aircraft that has been used to launch missiles against targets in Ukraine.

The source shared video footage shot from a drone, saying it showed one of the strikes. The images showed several large aircraft, some of which appeared to be Tu-95 strategic bombers, on fire.

Zelensky said the attacks had inflicted tangible losses on Moscow.

“An absolutely brilliant outcome. And an outcome produced by Ukraine independently,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app, noting that the operation had taken more than 18 months to prepare. “This is our longest-range operation.”

Speaking shortly afterwards in his nightly video address, the president noted that 117 drones had been used to attack the Russian bases.

“Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” he said.

The attack came the same day as Zelensky said Ukraine would send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday.

Zelensky said that Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would lead the Ukrainian delegation. “We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” Zelensky said.

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Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.

Also on Sunday, Russia’s top investigative body said that explosions had caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, killing seven in one of the incidents and injuring dozens more. Russian officials, however, did not say what had caused the blasts and the word “explosions” was later removed from an Investigative Committee press release.