Ukraine conducts ‘large-scale' operation targeting Russian airbases, security source says
Ukraine has carried out large-scale drone strikes against four airbases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, according to a source in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
If confirmed, the attacks would be the most ambitious simultaneous strikes on Russian airbases carried out by Ukraine since the war began.
The SBU source said that Russian bombers were 'burning en masse' at four airbases hundreds of miles apart, adding that drones had been launched from trucks inside Russia.
More than 40 aircraft were known to have been hit, according to the source, including TU-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and one of Russia's few remaining A-50 surveillance planes.
The airfields targeted included Belaya in Irkutsk, some 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) from Ukraine's border with Russia, and the Dyagilevo base in Ryazan in western Russia, about 520 kilometers (320 miles) from Ukraine, which is a training center for Russia's strategic bomber force.
The Olenya base near Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from Ukraine, was also struck, according to the source, as well as the Ivanovo airbase, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Ukraine. Ivanovo is a base for Russian military transport aircraft.
There has been no comment from the Russian Defense Ministry on the attacks. But the governor of Irkutsk region, Igor Kobziev, said that drones had been launched from a truck near the Belaya base.
Kobziev said on Telegram that the exact number of drones deployed had not been determined. Emergency and security services were at the site, he added.
SBU drones were targeting aircraft that bomb Ukrainian cities every night, the SBU source said – estimating the damage caused to the Russian side at more than $2 billion.
One video supplied by the source purportedly shows the Belaya airfield in flames and the voice of the head of the SBU, Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk, commenting on the situation. 'How beautiful Belaya airfield looks now. Enemy's strategic aircraft,' he says.
CNN was able to confirm the location of that video, as well as two others posted on social media showing smoke rising from the Belaya airbase. It was not immediately able to independently verify other videos provided by the SBU.
The SBU source said that the operation was 'extremely complicated from a logistical point of view,' with the drones carried inside wooden mobile homes that had been carried into Russia on board trucks.
'The drones were hidden under the roofs of the houses, which were already placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs were remotely opened, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers.'
One video purportedly of one attack appears to show drones rising from a truck, as vehicles pass on a nearby highway. Another image shows the roof of the truck on the ground.
The source added that people involved were already back in Ukraine.
CNN's Frankie Vetch and Eve Brennan contributed to this report.
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