Kyiv's targeting of Russian air bases with long-range strikes aims to affect Russia's ability to hammer Ukraine with highly destructive glide bomb attacks, reports suggest, as Moscow struggles to get a firm grip on Ukrainian troops attacking the border Kursk region.
Kyiv said earlier this week that it had carried out long-range drone strikes on four Russian military airfields, located in Russia's Voronezh, Kursk and Nizhny Novgorod regions.
The "main targets" were warehouses storing fuel and "aviation weapons," Ukraine's military said. The four air bases house Russian military aircraft, including Su-34 and Su-35 advanced jets, the armed forces said in a statement.
These aircraft have launched missiles and devastating glide bombs, often out of the reach of Ukrainian air defenses, that have pummeled Ukraine for months and supported Russia's advances in the east. Ukraine said earlier this week it had destroyed an Su-34 over Kursk.
A Reuters report, citing a Ukrainian security source, said the strikes on the Russian airfields were designed to undercut Moscow's ability to use its jets for glide bomb attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Russia reported a massive wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on its territory at the time, saying a total of 117 uncrewed aerial vehicles had been intercepted by its air defense systems. A total of 37 were reported over Kursk, plus a further 37 over Voronezh, with 11 "destroyed" over Nizhny Novgorod region, Moscow said.
The operation involved personnel from across several different branches of the Ukrainian military, Kyiv said, as well as its agencies that have been active and high-profile in long-range drone strikes on Russian bases.
The air force and special operations forces worked alongside Kyiv's SBU Security Service and the GUR military intelligence agency, the General Staff said in a statement. Newsweek has reached out to the GUR, the SBU and Ukraine's defense ministry for comment.
At least one of the bases was not far from where Ukrainian troops have been battling to advance further into Russia, after launching a surprise incursion into Kursk last week.
Kyiv officials say the incursion is designed to shield the war-torn country from Russian attacks, including from Russian artillery. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that 80 Kursk settlements are now under Ukrainian control, including the border town of Sudzha where heavy fighting has raged since the start of the incursion.
"Ukraine is waging a defensive war, pushing Russian artillery to the necessary distance so that it cannot be used against civilians," Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, told Russian-language independent outlet Meduza on Wednesday.
Ukraine is "moving forward" in Kursk, Ukraine's military chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Thursday, adding Kyiv had set up a military office to "ensure law and order, as well as all the needs of the local population."
Russia's defense ministry painted a contrasting picture, saying on Thursday that it had reclaimed control over Krupets, a village close to the border and southeast of Sudzha. The commander of the Chechen special forces operating around the border separately said on Thursday that Russia had "cleared" Martynovka, a settlement northeast of Sudzha.
Shortly after Ukraine launched its Kursk push, the governor of Kharkiv—an area of Ukraine particularly devastated by glide bombs—reported a "significantly lower number of guided aerial bombs" hitting northeastern Ukraine.
Kyiv is not permitted to use Western-supplied long-range weapons, such as the U.S.'s Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) or the British-donated Storm Shadow to strike air bases deep in Russian territory. Kyiv has loudly lobbied for the removal of this restriction, although its forces can use other Western-supplied aid for short-range strikes in Russia.
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