Ukraine pressed on with a major cross-border incursion into Russia, where state media and local officials on Friday reported a fire at a military airfield and “massive” drone attacks hundreds of kilometers from the border.
The Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region over the past few days appears to be the most significant attack on Russian soil since the war in Ukraine began in 2022. It involved around 1,000 troops and more than two dozen armored vehicles and tanks, according to the Russian Army.
Kyiv has not officially taken responsibility for the operation, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Thursday that Russia needed to “feel” the consequences of its invasion.
Early Friday, official Russian news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti reported a fire at a military airfield in the neighboring Lipetsk region, citing the local emergencies ministry directorate, though neither outlet offered a cause.
The reports came just hours after regional governor Igor Artamonov announced on Telegram at around 3:00 AM (00:00 GMT) that Lipetsk had “been subjected to a massive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack,” later adding a local power facility was damaged.
In a subsequent message, Artamonov urged residents to ignore calls on social media to leave Lipetsk — saying they were “spread by the enemy in order to sow panic” — only to reverse course less than an hour later.
Artamonov said preliminary reports suggested at least six people had been wounded as a result of the attack.
He later announced around 7:00 AM that the red threat level for the city had been lifted.
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces shot down 75 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 26 in the Belgorod region which borders Ukraine, 19 over Lipetsk, seven over Kursk, and 13 over the annexed Crimean peninsula and surrounding Black Sea.
Cross-Border Gains
Lipetsk city is about 330 kilometres (210 miles) from the Ukrainian border with Russia’s Kursk region, where pro-Kyiv forces have been waging an offensive on Russian territory for days.
The independent US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had made significant territorial gains since the push began on Tuesday.
“Geolocated footage and Russian claims indicate that Ukrainian forces continued rapid advances further into Kursk Oblast on August 8 (Thursday), and Ukrainian forces are reportedly present in areas as far as 35 kilometers from the international border with Sumy Oblast” in Ukraine, the institute said in its daily campaign assessment.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday that its troops were “continuing to destroy” armed Ukrainian units and were using air strikes as well as rocket and artillery fire to try to push them back.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the incursion a “large-scale provocation” by Kyiv, and Russia’s top general vowed on Wednesday to crush it.
With AFP
