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Home World News In Russia Airfield Attacks, Ukraine Aims for Strategic and Symbolic Blow

In Russia Airfield Attacks, Ukraine Aims for Strategic and Symbolic Blow

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While the full extent of the damage is still unknown, the operation shows how Kyiv has been able to adapt and evolve over the war using drones.

Video player loading — Ukraine launched one of its broadest assaults of the war against air bases inside Russia, targeting sites from eastern Siberia to Russia’s western border.CreditCredit…Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters

Ukraine’s drone attack on airfields deep inside Russia on Sunday was a strategic and symbolic blow that military analysts said was designed to slow Moscow’s relentless bombing campaign and to demonstrate that Kyiv can still raise the cost of war for the Kremlin.

There were calls for a swift response across Russian media, and Ukrainians braced for retaliation even as they celebrated an operation that gave the beleaguered nation a much needed morale boost.

The extent of the damage of the simultaneous attacks was not fully known, with both sides putting out assessments that were not immediately verifiable.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 117 drones were used in the attacks, known as Operation Spiderweb — with a corresponding number of operators involved in remotely piloting the aircraft.

Ukraine’s security services, known as the S.B.U., said that 41 Russian aircraft were destroyed or damaged, which Mr. Zelensky said accounted for 34 percent of the strategic cruise-missile carriers at air bases across three time zones.

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