Planes Damaged in Ukrainian Strike on Russian Airfield

Facts

• Continuing its near-daily attacks into Russian territory, Ukraine launched a wave of drones into six regions of Russia in the early hours of Wednesday.¹
• Russia's defense ministry said that drones were brought down over the regions of Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga, and Moscow — however, drones penetrated air defenses and struck the city of Pskov in the northwest of the country, near the border of Latvia and Estonia.¹
• Emergency services said that Pskov's military airport was struck in the attack, sparking a blaze that damaged four Il-76 transport planes. "As a result of a drone attack, four Il-76 planes were damaged. A fire broke out. Two aircraft are engulfed in flames," an emergency service official said. There were no reports of civilian casualties.²
• Mikhail Vedernikov, governor of the Pskov region, said that the airport has been closed for the remainder of the day while assessments into the extent of the damage continue.³
• Meanwhile, Russia launched one of its largest drone and missile attacks into Ukraine in weeks. Ukraine's air force said that it destroyed 43 of 44 aerial targets — including all 28 missiles and 15 of 16 drones. They added that the targets were shot down over the regions of Kyiv, Cherkasky, Mykolaiv, and Odesa.⁴
• However, as a result of falling debris in Kyiv and its wider region, two civilians were killed and three more were injured, local officials said. Falling drone debris also damaged an infrastructure facility and a railway track in the Zhytomyr region, officials there said.⁵

Sources: ¹The Guardian, ²TASS (a), ³TASS (b), ⁴Ukrainska Pravda (a), and ⁵Ukrainska Pravda (b).

Narratives

• Pro-Ukraine narrative, as provided by Kyiv Post. Ukraine will continue to attack inside Russian territory, and the scale of the attacks will increase until Russia is expelled from Ukrainian soil.
• Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by TASS. Ukraine's attacks inside Russian territory are a demonstration of the futility of its counteroffensive. It shows that they have no other options left.

Predictions