DailyExpertNews
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Explosions at two Russian air bases on Monday drew attention to Ukraine’s efforts to develop longer-range combat drones.
The Russian defense ministry says the attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones, which it says were shot down by Russian air defenses. Images – both satellite images and photographs – indicate some damage to Russian military aircraft at a base in the Ryazan region.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not officially commented on the explosions, and the Ukrainian government has not acknowledged adding long-range drones to its arsenal.
However, state-owned weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom has indicated several times in recent weeks that it is nearing completion of work on a new long-range drone.
In October, it posted on Facebook — along with an image of what appeared to be part of the drone’s structure — “Range is 1,000 km (621 miles), combat unit weight is 75 kg (165 pounds). Putting the finishing touches on this.”
A month later, on November 24, Ukroboronprom published another message: “The next stage of UAV testing – On behalf of the Chief of the General Staff, we are preparing for flight tests under the influence of electronic warfare.”
“The weather will be a problem on the one hand, on the other hand it will be an extra test for the complex. A kind of crash test.”
A photo showed the words “az vozdam” engraved on what was said to be the drone – meaning “I will pay back.”
And on Saturday Ukrinform news agency reported that company spokeswoman Natalia Sad told Ukrainian television that “a number of stages of successful testing have been completed.”
“In accordance with the instructions of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we are moving to the stage of tests with an e-warfare jamming environment,” she added.
However, there is no public indication that the drone in question is ready for deployment or was involved in the explosions in Russia early Monday.
According to the Russian defense ministry, the two bases are hundreds of kilometers inside Russian territory and beyond the reach of Ukraine’s stated arsenal of drones. No images or images of the remains of drones have been published.
In the western Russian city of Engels, about 500 miles (more than 800 kilometers) southeast of Moscow, CCTV footage appeared to show an explosion lighting up the sky around 6 a.m. local time Monday morning.
The port city is home to the Engels-2 airfield, a strategic bomber airbase, about 6 kilometers away from where the CCTV footage was recorded.
Saratov region governor Roman Busargin assured residents on Telegram that no civilian infrastructure had been damaged, but said that “incident information at military facilities is monitored by law enforcement agencies.”
He acknowledged that information about “a loud bang and an outburst in early morning English” spread on social networks and the media.