Correspondent in Moscow,
To discover
Follow information on the war in Ukraine with the Figaro application
A worrying snub for Moscow.
Two attacks in Crimea, at the end of July, then in October had shown that Russia was vulnerable on "its" territory, far from the battlefields of Ukraine.
On Monday, drone attacks went deeper still, hitting two airbases in central Russia.
According to a press release from the Russian Defense Ministry, the air base of Diagilevo, in the Ryazan region, and that of Engels, near Saratov - located respectively 500 and 750 kilometers from the border -, were targeted by drones Ukrainians.
The statement claims that "jet drones" were intercepted by Russian air defense systems and that their debris fell on the territory of the air bases attacked, causing explosions there.
In Engels, a drone reportedly fell on the runway, but in Diaguilevo, it reportedly fell early Monday morning on a tanker truck which exploded, killing three soldiers, injuring four others and
“slightly”
damaging two planes.
Read alsoThe naval drone, a new lethal weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal
Kiev has only vaguely confirmed its responsibility for these attacks
.
"If you launch something very often in the airspace of other countries, sooner or later these unknown flying objects will return to the starting point"
tweeted Mykhaylo Podolyak, a close adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to Ukrainian media, the two aircraft damaged at the Engels base are Tu-95 bombers.
It is from this Engels base, already put on alert on December 1, that Russian planes take off to bomb Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Satellite images taken recently by Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs showed nearly two dozen strategic bombers were at the airbase, and X-55 and X-101 cruise missile carriers were spotted.
Technological and political impacts
The impact of such strikes, far in Russia itself, is both technological and political.
Depending on the models, Bayraktar drones used by Ukraine can only fly 150-360 kilometers.
Last October, however, the Ukrainian manufacturer Ukroboronprom announced its intention to create a drone capable of striking 1,000 kilometers inside the Russian border.
On Monday, Russian war correspondents did not hide their questions and criticisms on the internet.
"It has become clear that there are no strategic facilities left in Russia that can be considered absolutely safe," wrote Alexander Kots of the
Komsomolskïa Pravda
newspaper.
.
For pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, damaged planes should have been placed
“under concrete shelters”
during the war.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Crimea hit by a “drone attack”
The proliferation of such events could be cause for concern in Moscow.
On July 31, a bomb launched by a drone exploded in the premises of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, in Sevastopol, Crimea.
On August 9, still in the annexed peninsula, explosions devastated the air base of Saki, used to bomb Ukraine.
At least eight military aircraft were damaged, according to satellite images.
An accident, said the Russian general staff.
On October 29, kyiv forces launched a drone attack on Sevastopol.
Meanwhile, on October 8, the bridge connecting the annexed peninsula to Russian territory by spanning the Kerch Strait, was damaged by a powerful explosion.
A truck bomb by Ukrainian intelligence, according to Russian authorities.
Monday,
the Kremlin published a video showing Vladimir Putin at the wheel of a Mercedes driving over this highly symbolic bridge in order to show that the route had become passable and safe again.
The very day when the proof was brought, once again, that Russian soil was in fact less than ever out of reach of the Ukrainian offensives.