War in Ukraine: Russia shoots down Ukrainian drone near its Engels airbase

Moscow has claimed a Ukrainian drone attack on an airbase situated deep inside southern Russia has left three people dead.

The Russian military reported that it had shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching the Engels airbase, which lies more than 370 miles east of the border with Ukraine.

It is the second time the airbase has been targeted this month, raising questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defences if drones can fly that far into the country.

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Russia’s Defence Ministry said the incident took place in the early hours of Monday, and three servicemen were killed by debris at the base.

Ukrainian soldiers watch a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/LibkosUkrainian soldiers watch a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Libkos
Ukrainian soldiers watch a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Picture: AP Photo/Libkos

The facility houses the Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.

Engels is located in Russia’s Saratov region on the Volga River.

Russia blamed falling debris for the deaths of three servicemen and what it described as light damage to two aircraft.

It is the second time Engels has been targeted by Ukrainian drones.

On December 5, unprecedented drone strikes on Engels and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia killed a total of three servicemen and injured four others.

The strikes on the airbases were followed by a massive retaliatory missile barrage in Ukraine, which struck homes and buildings and killed civilians.

In Ukraine, overnight from Sunday to Monday appeared unusually quiet.

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For the first time in weeks, Russian forces did not shell the Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders the partially occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, its governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, reported on Telegram.

“This is the third quiet night in 5.5 months since the Russians started shelling” the areas around the city of Nikopol, he wrote.

Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.

Ukrainian-controlled areas of the neighbouring Kherson region were shelled 33 times over the past 24 hours, according to Kherson’s Ukrainian governor, Yaroslav Yanushevich. There were no casualties.

On Saturday, a deadly attack on the city of Kherson, which was retaken by Kyiv’s forces last month, killed and wounded scores of people.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, recently back from a short trip to Washington, had posted photos of the wreckage on his social media accounts.

“This is not sensitive content — it’s the real life of Kherson,” he tweeted on Saturday. The images showed cars on fire, bodies in the street and building windows blown out.

Ukraine has faced an onslaught of Russian artillery fire, missiles, shelling and drone attacks since early October, much of it targeting energy infrastructure in a bid to cut electricity and heating services as the freezing winter advances.

The shelling has been especially intense in Kherson since Russian forces withdrew and Ukraine’s army reclaimed the city last month.

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