Ukrainian forces targeted an airfield with long-range drones in southern Russia, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed on Thursday. The airfield is reportedly used to launch Iran-designed Shahid drones. The development comes as France says it delivered the first batch of Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine. The attack, which came during the night on the Primorsko-Akhtarsk airfield in Russia’s Krasnodar region, is reported to have started a fire, the General Staff wrote on Facebook.
While the Russian Defence Ministry reported downing Ukrainian drones over Krasnodar, it did not explicitly mention the region or the airfield.
Notably, Ukraine has developed its long-range drones aimed at growing its domestic arms industry and becoming less dependent on Western help to fight its almost three-year war with Russia. At times, the drones have successfully reached deep into Russia, hitting oil refineries, weapons stores, and airfields.
France confirms the delivery of Mirage to Ukraine
The French authorities have claimed that they had delivered the first fighter jets promised to Ukraine by President Emmanuel Macron in last June. The first of them arrived in Ukraine today,” Sebastien Lecornu, the minister of the armed forces, said on X.
“With Ukrainian pilots on board, trained for several months in France, they will now help to defend the skies over Ukraine.” Lecornu did not say how many planes were delivered. Kyiv has also received the American fighter jets, F-16s, from European countries. However, Ukraine has refrained from mentioning these jets explicitly.
Russian forces fired 77 Shahed and other types of drones, as well as two ballistic Iskander-M missiles, at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force. A statement said 56 drones were destroyed and 18 others were jammed and lost mid-flight. Some buildings were damaged, but no casualties were reported.
Ukraine attacked Russia’s biggest oil refineries
Recently, as Ukraine tries to slow the Russian army’s push along parts of the front line, Ukrainian long-range drones targeted one of Russia’s biggest oil refineries for the second time in three days, a senior Kyiv official said.
The attack which came late on Sunday hit a refinery in the Volgograd region, which is one of Russia’s 10 biggest refining facilities, processing close to 6% of the country’s oil, an official in Ukraine’s Security Service told news agency AP.
(With inputs from AP)
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