During a massive attack by drones on the territory of Russia this night, the Defense Forces of Ukraine were able to destroy and damage almost a dozen Russian aircraft, the Ukrainian Air Force sources in the special services reported.
In particular, we are talking about the attack on the Morozovsk airfield near Rostov, which, according to sources, was carried out by the SBU together with the Defense Forces.
At least six planes were destroyed, and another eight were seriously damaged, the interlocutors say.
The BBC cannot confirm this from independent sources, Russia does not comment on the loss of its planes.
"Front-line Su-27 and Su-34 bombers and fighters were based at the airfield — these are the planes Russia uses to drop anti-aircraft missiles on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian front-line cities," sources say.
Also, according to the security forces, 20 servicemen who were at the airfield could have been killed or injured.
Russia announced attacks on its airfields this night. However, they claim that all the drones were shot down.
At night, the governor of the Rostov region, Vasyl Golubev, published a short message: "In the Morozovsky district, air defense units repel a mass UAV attack."
Later, he added: "According to preliminary data, more than 40 targets were destroyed by air defense forces in the Morozovsky district. As a result of the attack, the power station was damaged. Work is underway to restore energy supply."
At the same time, Golubev did not mention the airfield near Morozovsk.
However, even before Golubev's announcements, the Russian mass media, in particular the propagandist "Readovka", wrote that the target of the attack was the airfield in Morozovsk.
"Ostorozhno Novosti" wrote with reference to local residents that they saw "more than 15 aerial targets".
Later, the governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, also reported on the drone attack.
"Unmanned aerial vehicles were eliminated in Engels early this morning. There have been no injuries or damage to the infrastructure during the fall of debris."
From its wording, it is impossible to draw an unequivocal conclusion whether one drone was destroyed or more than one.
The local group wrote about numerous explosions, but if an air target is shot down by missiles, then at least two missiles are needed to intercept it.
Engels is known primarily for its base of Tu-95 and Tu-22 heavy bombers, which are used to attack the Ukrainian rear with cruise missiles from a long distance, usually from the Caspian region.
In social networks, they wrote about explosions right near the airfield. It has already been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Later, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that one drone was shot down in the Saratov region, 44 in the Rostov region, six drones were allegedly shot down over the Krasnodar region and one each over the Kursk and Belgorod regions.
