Dozens of Ukrainian drones targeted sites in western Russian regions and elsewhere early on April 5, including an airbase that’s home to a squadron of Sukhoi fighter bombers.
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Drones attacked the military airfield in Morozovsk in the Rostov region of Russia, according to Russian Telegram channels and the governor of the region, Vasily Golubev.
Golubev said the drones attacked in the evening of April 5 and claimed that Russian air defenses had shot down more than 40 targets.
Su-24, Su-24M, and Su-34 bombers were stationed at the airfield, according to a source familiar with the situation cited by RFE/RL. The aircraft have been used to drop guided bombs on Ukrainian military positions and frontline cities.
“At least six military aircraft of the Russian Federation were destroyed, eight more were damaged,” the source said, adding that about 20 soldiers were wounded or killed.
The attack was a joint operation of Ukraine’s Security Service and military, the source said.
There was no independent corroboration of the claim; one prominent, closely watched Russian war blogger cast doubt on it. But if true, the attack would be among Ukraine’s most successful cross-border strikes.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed it downed 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one that was reported in the Saratov region, where the Engels air base is located. Video posted to Telegram and other social media overnight showed antiaircraft defenses firing into the night sky near another air base closer to the Ukrainian border. The videos could not be immediately verified.
The ministry made no mention of damaged or destroyed aircraft.
In the western Kursk region, at least four buildings were damaged by drones, but no casualties were reported, the regional governor reported in a post to Telegram.
Ukraine, which rarely comments on its targeting of Russian sites, said nothing publicly on the drone strikes.
Russia also fired drones and ballistic missiles in an attack on southern regions, Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram.
Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration in Zaporizhzhya, said four people were killed.
“Regarding the operational situation in Zaporizhzhya as of now four people have died, more than 20 people have been injured. Currently, everyone is provided with the necessary medical assistance!” Fedorov said on Telegram.
Officials in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, reported new explosions early on April 5, which damaged four cars and an apartment building, but no casualties were immediately reported.
Kharkiv has been pounded by Russian attacks in recent weeks, crippling the city’s power grid and stoking fear among residents.
Rescuers and municipal workers continued cleaning up wreckage from a Russian drone attack a day earlier that killed at least three emergency workers who had been responding to an earlier attack.
On the battlefield, Russian forces have continued to make incremental gains, and were reportedly on the verge of entering Chasiv Yar, a small city that sits astride a major east-west rail link.
Russian war bloggers said troops had entered the city’s outskirts as of April 5, a claim that could not be immediately verified.
Ukraine denied that Russian troops had entered Chasiv Yar. Andriy Zadubinniy, spokesman for the Khortytsia operational-strategic group, said the situation in the city was difficult and fighting continued, but there were no Russian troops in the city.
Russian troops have been targeting Chasiv Yar after pushing west out of the industrial city of Avdiyivka, which they captured in mid-February after a costly, monthslong campaign.
Capturing Chasiv Yar, which is located on relatively high ground, would allow Russian forces to threaten another railway town, Kostyantynivka, and potentially threaten larger, more strategic cities further north, like Kramatorsk or Slovyansk.
Ukrainian forces have been rushing to build trench lines and fortify defenses to slow the Russian westward advances. Ukrainian and Western observers say Russian forces are suffering major losses of troops and equipment, but continue to grind down smaller, depleted Ukrainian units.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on the Russian claim that Russian troops were on the verge of entering Chasiv Yar, but commanders have said publicly that the fighting there is difficult. In its daily update on April 5, Ukraine’s general staff listed general fighting across the front line, but nothing specifically about Chasiv Yar.
Ukraine’s struggles with artillery and ammunition are caused by slowing Western weapons deliveries, mainly the result of political infighting in the United States, where congressional lawmakers have struggled to agree on a new $60 billion package of aid.
During an online briefing on April 3, Ukraine’s foreign minister called again for urgent deliveries of air defense systems, which he said were crucial in warding off the increase in attacks.
“The peculiarity of the current Russian attacks is the intensive use of ballistic missiles that can reach targets at extremely high speeds, leaving little time for people to take cover and causing significant destruction,” Dmytro Kuleba said.
“Patriot and other similar systems are defensive by definition. They are designed to protect lives, not take them,” he said.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces warned last week that Russia was building a group of over 100,000 soldiers in advance of what may be a major offensive this summer.