Ukrainian drone attacks have destroyed more than 40 Russian aircraft on Russian territory, while Moscow slammed Ukraine with missiles and drones hours before a new direct peace talk in Istanbul.
A military official spoke with the Associated Press with anonymous disclosure of operational details and said the far-reaching attack took a year and a half to be executed and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Military sources said it was an “extremely complex” operation involving the smuggling of first-person views or FPV to Russia and then placed it in a mobile wooden house.
“Later, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these houses and were placed on the trucks. At the right time, the roof of the house was opened remotely and the drone flew to hit the Russian bomber,” the source said.
Social media footage shared by Russian media appears to show drones rising from internal containers, while other panels are discarded on the road. A clip appears to show the man climbing onto the truck and trying to stop the drone.
The drones attacked 41 aircraft at military airports on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, TU-95 and TU-220,000 aircraft, the official said. Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles in Ukraine, while the A-50 is used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and missiles.
Ukraine's Security Agency said its operation codenamed “Cyber” destroyed 34% of Russia's air missile carrier fleet, with losses estimated at $7 billion. This claim cannot be verified independently.
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Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack in a statement, which damaged the aircraft and shot airbornely in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Ukraine and the Murmansk region in the north. The ministry said Amur areas in the Russian Far East and the western regions of Ivanovo and Reshan were also on strike.
The attack took place the same day, Zelenskyy said Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul on Monday to conduct new direct peace talks.
In a statement on the telegram, Zelenskyy said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would lead the Ukrainian delegation. “We are doing everything we can to protect our independence, our country and our people,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian officials have previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum ahead of the meeting to clarify its position on ending the war. Moscow has said it will share its memorandum during the talks.
Also on Sunday, Russia's top investigative agency said the explosion caused the collapse of two bridges and derailed western Russia, causing overnight, with seven people killing seven in one incident and injured dozens of people. However, Russian officials did not say what caused the explosion, and later removed the term “explosion” from the press release of the commission of inquiry.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched its largest drone (472) in Ukraine on Sunday since the full invasion in February 2022.
Yuriy Ignat, head of air force communications, said Russian troops also fired seven missiles on the barrage of drones. Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian troops said at least 12 Ukrainian service personnel were killed in a Russian missile strike in the Army's training department and more than 60 were injured.
The statement said the strike occurred at 12:50 pm, highlighting that no gathering of personnel was held at that time.
Ukrainian Army Commander Mykhailo Drapatyi resigned later on Sunday after the attack. He is a respected commander, and his leaders have seen Ukraine regain land on the Eastern Front for the first time since the 2022 counterattack.
The training unit is located at the rear of the 1,000 km (620 miles) event frontline, with Russian reconnaissance and strike drones able to strike. Ukrainian troops lack troops and take additional precautions to avoid large gatherings, as the sky on the front line is filled with Russian drones looking for targets.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in the Sumi region of northern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy had mandatory evacuation in 11 settlements on Saturday as Russian troops made steady gains in the region.
Ukraine's Supreme Army Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian troops focused their main offensive efforts in the Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman and Sumy Border regions in the Donetsk region.
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