Is it all coincidence? Explosions occur at two Russian military airports. According to one report, a drone attacked an airfield in Saratov. Dozens of Russians are said to be dying every day in fighting for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Two TU-95 bombers are said to have been damaged in an alleged drone attack on a military airport near the town of Engels in Russia’s Saratov region. This is reported, among others, by the opposition Belarusian news channel Nexta. The airbase is a hub for Russia’s strategic bombers and was most recently used for airstrikes and missile attacks on Ukraine. The base is around 680 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian position. According to the Internet portal Baza, two people were hospitalized.
At about the same time, according to Nexta and the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, three people were killed in an explosion at a military airport in the Russian city of Ryazan. Six others are said to have been wounded, according to Ria Nowosti. According to Nexta, a tanker was also destroyed. It is still unclear who is behind the explosions at both military airports.
Russian military correspondents accused Ukraine of using a drone to attack the Engels base. The news channel Readovka, which is close to the Kremlin, reported that two bombers were damaged in a drone attack in Engels.
In Ukraine, the incidents were mentioned only in passing. “If something is shot down into the airspace of other countries, sooner or later unidentified flying objects will return to the starting point,” Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak wrote in a tweet.
There were also fatalities in the Russian-occupied east of Ukraine. Russian-backed military officials in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region report the deaths of nine people in the city of Alchevsk, according to the state news agency TASS. They died after Ukraine shelled the Russian-occupied town.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia is losing between 50 and 100 soldiers a day in attempts to capture the city of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk. This reports “Kyiv Independent” and cites a spokesman for the military command east, Serhiy Cherevaty. According to him, about as many Russian soldiers are wounded near Bakhmut every day.
For months, Russia has been massing soldiers and fighters from the Wagner mercenary unit to surround and capture Bakhmut. “It’s a very difficult situation,” said Cherevaty. But the Ukrainian forces withstood the attacks. The town of Bakhmut, once home to 70,000 people, lies on a main road to Kramatorsk and Slovyansk – key Donetsk cities that Moscow wants to take.
According to Ukraine, it also fended off Russian attacks on 13 settlements in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia carried out 32 airstrikes, as well as seven rocket attacks and more than 50 multiple rocket launcher attacks. However, the Ukrainian critical infrastructure throughout Ukraine remains under threat. Belarus supports Russia’s war by making territory and airspace available for missile and air strikes.
