At least three Russian soldiers died this Monday in an attack with a Ukrainian drone against the “Engels” airfield, reported the Russian Defense Ministry.
The city of Engels, in the southern Saratov region, is more than 600 km from the border with Ukraine and its air base had already been attacked on December 5.
“On December 26 at about 01:35 Moscow time (22:35 GMT on Sunday), anti-aircraft defense equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Ukrainian drone at a low altitude when it was approaching the Engels military airfield in the Moscow region. Saratov,” Defense said in a statement released by Russian agencies.
According to the military report, three soldiers from the technical staff of the aerodrome, one of the bases of Russia’s strategic aviation, died as a result of the falling fragments of the drone. “The planes were not damaged,” stressed Defense.
On December 5, the Russian command reported that they had intercepted several Ukrainian drones that were targeting the “Engels” and “Diaghilevo” airfields, the latter in the Russian region of Ryazan, neighboring Moscow.
On that occasion, due to the falling fragments of the drones -according to the official report- three soldiers died, another four were injured and two planes suffered minor damage to their fuselage.
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Ukraine’s response
After learning of the attack, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force stated this Monday that the explosion at the airfield “Engels” it is “the consequence of Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
“These are the consequences of what Russia is doing in our country. If the Russians thought that the war would not affect their rear, they were wrong,” the spokesman, Yuriy Ignat, said in televised remarks.
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“These kinds of things are happening more and more frequently and we hope this will be positive for Ukraine,” he added.
In addition, he asked to wait for satellite images of the aerodrome to be released to assess the real consequences of the explosion, which according to Russian sources occurred when a Ukrainian drone was shot down and did not cause damage to the infrastructure.
If the Russians thought that the war would not affect their rear, they were wrong.
Ukraine plans to request this Monday the removal of Russia as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Councilannounced Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“We will officially state our position. We have a simple question: Does Russia have the right to remain a permanent member of the UN Security Council?” Kuleba said Sunday night in a national television address.
“We have a convincing and reasoned answer: no, it doesn’t,” he said.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council along with the United Kingdom, France, China and the United States. The veto power of these members allows them to block any resolution and render the entity impotent, as happened in February, when Moscow invaded Ukraine and diplomats limited themselves to reading statements.
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In addition, after ten months of conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his military offensive in the former Soviet republic this Sunday and assured that his objective was to “unite the Russian people.”
“Everything is based on the policy of our geopolitical adversaries, who seek to divide Russia, historical Russia,” Putin denounced in an interview broadcast on Russian television.
The president often refers to the concept of “historic Russia” to justify military intervention in Ukraine, in order to unite the Ukrainians and Russians, who form a single people, according to him.
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“We are acting in the right direction, we are protecting our national intereststhe interests of our citizens, of our people,” he insisted.
During the interview, the Russian leader also promised to remove the Patriot air defense system that the United States will deliver to kyiv. “Of course we will destroy it, 100%!” he said, barely three days after having assured that his army would find “an antidote” to avoid a “quite old system”.
In addition to the Patriot system, Ukraine will receive a new $45 billion aid package from Washington.
ANGIE RUIZ HURTADO
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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