By Jacob Burg
Contributing Writer
Ukraine launched a massive drone strike on Sunday, hitting multiple Russian airbases, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. It was Ukraine’s first strike more than 2,670 miles from the front lines.
On Sunday, Russia also launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since its invasion in February 2022, sending 472 drones into Ukrainian territory, according to Ukraine’s air force. Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the air force, said Russian forces also sent seven missiles along with the drone swarm.
The attacks killed at least 12 Ukrainian soldiers, according to a resignation letter from Mykhailo Drapaty, now former commander of the ground forces of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Ukraine’s drones hit airfields in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed on Telegram.
“In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, as a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several units of aircraft caught fire,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, confirmed it had hit the Russian airfields.
“Seven billion U.S. dollars. This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of the SBU’s special operation,” SBU wrote in a post on social media platform X. “Thirty-four [percent] of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation were hit.”
Earlier on Sunday, two bridges in different Russian regions bordering Ukraine were blown up, killing at least seven people and injuring 69, Russian officials said.
The series of attacks took place just one day before the U.S. government had brokered for both sides to sit down for face-to-face negotiations to end the war, which has killed and injured at least 1.2 million people.
On Saturday evening, at about 10:50 p.m. local time, a highway bridge in the Bryansk region was hit right as a passenger train containing 388 passengers bound for Moscow was passing underneath, according to Russian investigators.
They stated that only four hours later, a railway bridge over a highway was struck in the Kursk region. The explosion caused pieces of a freight train to shower the road underneath.
The incidents were linked together and confirmed as two bridge explosions, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes.
Pictures and video footage on social media show passengers attempting to climb out of damaged carriages in the darkness in the Bryansk region. Portions of a crushed passenger train could be seen under a destroyed road bridge with damaged carriages strewn about the rail lines.
Alexander Bogomaz, the region’s governor, said on Russian television, “The bridge was blown up while the Klimovo-Moscow train was passing through with 388 passengers on board.”
Ever since Russia’s 2022 invasion, its regions bordering Ukraine have been frequently attacked by Ukraine, with each side accusing the other of targeting civilians. Both sides deny those allegations.
Ukraine did not immediately provide a comment on the incidents.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service confirmed on Sunday that a blast had derailed a Russian military train carrying fuel trucks and cargo close to the settlement of Yakymivka, which is in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. However, the agency did not take responsibility for the explosion, nor did it blame it on anyone.
In the past, Ukraine has claimed responsibility for strikes deep in Russian territory.
Russian politicians immediately blamed the attacks on Ukraine, suggesting that they were intended to forestall peace negotiations.
“This is definitely the work of the Ukrainian special services,” Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the defense committee of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, told the SHOT Telegram channel.
“All this is aimed at toughening the position of the Russian Federation and stoking aggression before the negotiations. And also to intimidate people. But they won’t succeed.”
The Kremlin stated that the Federal Security Service and the Emergency Ministry had briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the bridge explosions overnight. Putin also reached out to Bogomaz.
Peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have been encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to walk away if they do not take place.
On Wednesday, Trump warned Putin that he had two weeks to display a genuine commitment to ending the war and threatened to impose additional sanctions on Moscow.
“I’m very disappointed,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Despite calls for a cease-fire between the two nations, the war between Russia and Ukraine has escalated recently, with both sides launching swarms of drones and Russian troops marching into critical points near the front in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine had previously not confirmed whether it would attend peace talks in Turkey, suggesting that it would first need to see Russia’s offerings.
However, on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would attend the second round of face-to-face peace talks with Russian officials in Istanbul on Monday.
U.S. lawmakers have warned Russia that it could face new U.S. sanctions if it doesn’t proceed in good faith.
Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report.
