The situation comes as the war moves ever closer to its two year anniversary.
ADVERTISEMENTRussia and Ukraine have reportedly launched mass drone attacks at each other’s territories for a second straight day on Sunday – one of which apparently targeted a Russian military airport.
At least 35 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over three regions in southwestern Russia, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
A Russian air base hosting bomber aircraft used in the war in Ukraine was among the targets, according to a Russian Telegram channel critical of the Kremlin. The channel posted short videos of drones flying over low-rise housing in what it claimed was the Russian town of Morozovsk, whose air base is home to Russia’s 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of Russia’s Rostov province, separately reported “mass drone strikes” near Morozovsk and another town farther west, but didn’t mention the air base. Golubev said most the drones were shot down and and there were no casualties. He didn’t comment on damage.
As of Sunday evening, Kyiv didn’t formally acknowledge or claim responsibility for the drone attacks.
A major Ukrainian newspaper, Ukrainska Pravda, cited an anonymous source in the security services as saying that Ukraine’s army and intelligence services successfully struck the Morozovsk air base, inflicting “significant damage” to military equipment. It wasn’t immediately possible to verify this claim.
The attacks come following Hungary’s veto of €50 billion of European Union funding to Ukraine.
Aid for Ukraine looks increasingly uncertain going forward
On Friday, EU leaders sought to paper over their inability to boost Ukraine’s coffers with a promised €50 billion euros over the next four years, saying the funds will likely arrive next month after some more haggling between the bloc’s other 26 leaders and the longtime holdout, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Instead, they wanted Ukraine to revel in getting the nod to start membership talks that could mark a sea change in its fortunes – although the process could last well over a decade and be strewn with obstacles placed by any single member state.
Also on Saturday, Russia returned three Ukrainian children to their families as part of a deal brokered by Qatar, according to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, and Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Lubinets voiced hope last week that a coalition of countries formed to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia – the National Coalition of Countries for the Return of Ukrainian Children – will be able to come up with a faster mechanism to repatriate them. More than 19,000 children are still believed to be in Russia or in occupied regions of Ukraine.
