Moscow has accused Ukraine of staging its largest attack yet on Russian soil after a wave of drones struck Pskov airport, setting two military transport planes alight and damaging two more.
Thick black smoke billowed over Pskov, which is more than 400 miles north of the nearest Ukrainian border, suggesting that other targets may have been hit, such as an oil depot.
In Kyiv two security guards were killed overnight as cruise missiles and drones targeted the Ukrainian capital in what officials called a deliberate attack on civilians.
Occupied Crimea and six Russian regions including Moscow and Pskov were targeted early on Wednesday. A microchip factory was said to be on fire in Bryansk, an oil reservoir was hit in Kaluga and strikes were reported on the Cherekhinsky military base. Kremlin officials said the Black Sea port of Sevastapol had been targeted with naval drones.
The attacks temporarily grounded flights at Moscow’s three main airports: Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo. Russia promised to retaliate, saying the drones could not have struck so deep into its territory without support from the West.
Mikhail Vernikov, the Pskov regional governor, said there were no casualties but that the scale of destruction was being assessed.
Russian Telegram channels posted videos of Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft burning, with unconfirmed reports that all four had been destroyed along with a Tupolev Tu-22 jet bomber.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the strikes but this month The Times reported on a Ukrainian special forces unit targeting Russian airbases.
Russia in turn launched its biggest series of strikes on Ukraine since the spring, firing 28 cruise missiles and 16 Iranian-made Shahed drones at cities across the country, killing two security guards at a commercial complex in Kyiv. The Ukrainian airforce said it had shot down all the cruise missiles and all but one of the drones.
“Today’s large-scale combined attack . . . on Kyiv is an unquestionably deliberate attack on the civilian population,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, said.
“The motive: revenge for the growing accidents in [Russia] itself; failures on the frontline; ethnic hatred and attempt of psychological intimidation. Undoubtedly, an attack of this kind is qualified as an act of demonstrative terrorism, thought out, premeditated and committed by a group of persons in prior conspiracy.”
