The explosion of a drone causes the fire of an oil tank, although it does not leave any victims
A drone attack has caused a fire at an airfield in the Russian city of Kursk, near the border with Ukraine, although without causing casualties. As reported by the region’s governor, Roman Starovoit, an oil tank has caught fire. Intelligence agencies are already investigating what happened. The attack takes place just a few hours after explosions were recorded at two other Russian airbases located hundreds of kilometers from the front. The Kremlin accused kyiv of being behind the attack.
All three incidents raise questions about Ukraine’s military strategy. Western arms shipments were contingent on Ukraine using the weapons within its national territory. That’s why no long-distance weapons were sent. No one can know how far the war would escalate if kyiv took the war into the heart of Russia. But now it appears that Ukraine, which has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, has begun to fly on its own.
Ukroboronprom, the Ukrainian state arms manufacturer, declared in October that it was “finalizing development” of a drone with a 75kg warhead and a range of almost 1,000km, and on Sunday said it had completed tests of the weapon. Just a day later, the Russian airbases were hit. This Tuesday, a third airfield has been hit.
While the drones were deployed in Ukraine and flew low to Russia to avoid detection, analysts say it was necessary to have a team on the ground to direct the drones. Russian military blogs critical of the Kremlin also accuse Moscow of not being able to prevent the bombings and assume that Ukrainian units are operating from Russian territory, showing that Russia is also vulnerable.
A former US diplomat and military analyst, Max Bergmann, affirms in the newspaper ‘New York Times’ that this strategy of hitting Russian national territory has a meaning beyond displaying military muscle. In his opinion, he “also sends a message to Russia that continuing the war is not free, that not only Ukraine is vulnerable to long-range missile and drone attacks; So is Russia.” “This is useful for kyiv, as when or if the two countries ever sit down” at a negotiating table, “the commitment to stop attacks on Russian soil is now a valuable trump card Ukraine has to offer.”
A mysterious drone attack in October destroyed several Russian ships moored at the Sevastopol base, nearly derailing the grain export deal. And months earlier, in August, another attack destroyed several planes at the Saki airbase in Crimea.
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