Ukraine used aerial drones on Aug. 22 to attack an air base in Russia's Volgograd region as part of its campaign of long-range strikes aimed at bringing down Moscow's war machine. The primary targets are warehouses used to store fuel and glide bombs to cripple Russia's air power.
According to Russian authorities in Volgograd, a falling drone started fire at a military air base in the residential village of Marinovka. An unconfirmed video posted on Russian social media showed the Marinovka Air Base on fire, with thick smoke billowing into the sky.
Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed it had repelled drones over five other regions overnight. Andrei Bocharov, the region's governor, posted on Telegram early on Aug. 22 that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack was "repelled," adding that the attack caused a fire at a defense ministry facility 185 miles from the border with Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that while Ukrainian drones "work exactly as they should," they are not enough for what needs to be done. Zelensky added that Ukraine needs more weapons, such as "missile weapons." (Related: Tokyo to provide $3.3 billion loan to Kyiv using frozen Russian assets.)
Zelensky's office released footage of his first public visit to the border region of Sumy, the staging ground for the incursion, where he met with his top general. He also announced that Ukraine added one more settlement in Kursk to the several dozen it already controls and has more Russian military prisoners.
Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy briefed Zelensky on efforts to fortify Ukraine's eastern frontline near the strategic towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk. Ukraine is targeting the towns as Russia advances and has yet to shift significant forces from there to resist Ukraine's fierce Kursk incursion.
In a meeting with Ukrainian diplomats, Zelensky explained that if allied countries "lifted all the current restrictions on the use of weapons on Russian territory," Ukraine would no longer need to physically enter areas such as the Kursk region to protect Ukrainian citizens in the border communities and cut down Russia's "potential for aggression." He added that any further delay by Ukrainian allies concerning long-range capabilities is becoming "the most effective support for Russia's offensive potential."
In May, the Biden administration eased restrictions on the use of American-supplied weapons after Russia reinvaded Ukraine's northern Kharkiv region, allowing Kyiv to use artillery and fire short-range rockets from High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers against command posts, arms depots and other assets across the border there.
However, the policy didn't allow Ukraine to use American-supplied rockets called Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) within Russia. Now, Zelensky's administration is appealing to the U.S. to untie its hands by allowing them to use the weapons.
Expert: Total damage so far of Ukraine's drone strikes "isn't strategically significant"
A strategic oil storage facility in the southern Rostov region burned for several days after it was targeted in a recent drone strike. Previously, a Ukrainian official said it had conducted its largest drone attack on Russian military airfields since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, with strikes in Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk.
A Ukrainian drone attack on the Lipetsk airfield also destroyed stockpiles of guided bombs earlier this August.
But while drone strikes are inflicting damage on Russian military resources, Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, explained that the total damage so far "isn't strategically significant."
But Bronk noted the current rate of damage Ukraine has inflicted on air bases is something the Russians "cannot just accept" as it could become a serious problem over time.
If Ukraine keeps targeting air bases within Russia, the former could force Moscow to relocate air defense systems away from frontline areas. According to Bronk, this has already reduced glide bomb sortie rates by making the Russians fly farther on average to and from their bases to the front.
Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the increasing quantity and range of Ukrainian drone attacks is becoming a source of frustration for Russia.
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Watch the video below as Ukraine deploys 30 British Robot Dogs with German camouflage in the Donetsk region.
This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com.
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