Ukraine targets four Russian airbases in major drone attack, Kyiv source says

KYIV – Ukraine carried out its largest long-range drone strike of the war on four Russian military airfields overnight, a Kyiv security source said, an attack hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as “timely” and “accurate”.

The strike, which targeted Russia’s Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk airbases, aimed to undermine Moscow’s ability to use warplanes for gliding bomb attacks on Ukraine, the source said.

Reuters could not independently verify the claim.

Ukraine was still assessing the scale of damage, the source said.

“Thank you for the accurate, timely and effective strikes on Russian airfields. Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should,” Mr Zelensky said as he addressed the military on Aug 14.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said earlier that its air defences had destroyed 117 drones and four tactical missiles launched by Ukraine at several regions, including Kursk.

The strike on the airfields comes as

Ukrainian troops are pressing forward in Russia’s Kursk region

after they launched a surprise operation which has yielded their biggest battlefield gains since 2022.

Since the incursion last week, Russian forces have reduced the number of guided bomb attacks on border settlements in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, the local governor said on Aug 12. REUTERS