A senior Ukrainian official has warned Vladimir Putin that drone attacks “by agents” will increase as Kyiv promises to ramp up strikes.
Over the past months there has been a steady increase in drone attacks on Russia, which comes as the Russian Federation was hit with the “biggest ever drone attack” since the war started on 24 February 2022.
Drones hit an airport in the Pskov Oblast leaving the airport closed and in the attack four military planes were destroyed.
Four-engine turbofan strategic transport planes which deliver heavy machinery were destroyed in the drone attack.
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Pskov Governor Mikhail Vedernikov said, “The defence ministry is repelling a drone attack on Pskov’s airport.”
The presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview in Kyiv that peace talks have now been ruled out and that any negotiations with Moscow will amount to “capitulation,” Reuters reported.
Podolyak said, “As for Russia … there is an increasing number of attacks by unidentified drones launched from the territory of the Russian Federation, and the number of these attacks will increase.
“Because this is the stage of the war when hostilities are gradually being transferred to the territory of the Russian Federation.”
On Friday Russia’s Defence Ministry said that they had destroyed 281 Ukrainian drones in a week, and 29 were intercepted in the western regions of Russia as the drone war intensifies.
The Ministry said in a statement on Friday, “281 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, including one Tu-141 Strizh, as well as 29 Ukrainian UAVs in the western regions of the Russian Federation.”
Putin has been blasted by Russian military bloggers for leaving their “local assets” vulnerable after Russia was rocked by the “biggest ever drone attack.”
Waves of drone attacks conducted by Ukrainian forces hit multiple locations across the Russian Federation on Wednesday.
Russian military bloggers have hit out at the Kremlin for failing to “defend the Russian territory” as between 10 and 20 drones attacked an airport in the Pskov Oblast forcing Moscow’s Vnuukovo airport to close.
Former NATO official Edward Hunter-Christie said these attacks prove “the air war is now genuinely mutual.”
He wrote on Twitter, “It is a long night. But to think that the air war is now genuinely mutual, and on the Ukrainian side based solely on Ukrainian-made systems, is extraordinary.
“Russia has lost the initiative and the ability to shape events in every domain. Ukraine is gaining both, in all domains.”
