THIS is the moment Ukraine struck a key Russian military airfield in one of the heaviest nights of kamikaze drone bombardment of the war.
Smoke is seen bellowing into the sky during the explosions at Morozovsk airbase – close to the conflict zone in Rostov region.
East2WestSmoke and fire filled the air[/caption]
East2WestUkrainian drones attacked Morozovsk airfield[/caption]
It came as Ukrainian military intelligence chief Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov revealed work is underway on a “complex solution” to destroy Vladimir Putin’s £3 billion bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea in the “coming months”.
Ukraine also hit military warehouses in Rostov region as part of what the Russians labelled a “massive” attack.
Some 55 drones overnight attacked the region, said governor Vasily Golubev, while Russia claimed it downed 75 in the barrage.
He claimed unspecified “storage facilities” had been hit.
“Emergency services are extinguishing the fires. Information about the victims is being clarified,” he said.
Separately, footage showed the moment a kamikaze drone hit a 16-storey tower block in Oryol region, south of Moscow.
The strike caused a huge explosion.
The Morozovsk airfield is a key Russian base near Morozovsk, close to the Ukrainian border.
It hosts several squadrons of fighter aircraft, including the advanced Su-34, a modern Russian fighter-bomber.
Explosions were also heard in Millerovo.
Budanov defended Ukraine’s campaign to attack Russian military airport facilities.
In one recent case a drone damaged a long-range bomber at Olenya in Arctic region Murmansk, a 1,175 mile flight from the nearest border with Ukraine across regions of Russia packed with air defences.
“Recently, drones have reached certain Russian airfields, including Olenya and others” said Budanov.
“There have been damaged bombers.
“This has allowed us to delay attacks on us by at least a few days.”
Speaking on Ukrainian TV, he said “work is ongoing” to explode the 12-mile Crimean – or Kerch – Bridge, the longest in Europe and Russia.
“Everyone is working on long-range strikes and [the destruction of the Crimean bridge],” he said in comments reported by Ukrinform.
“All this requires, let’s say, a complex solution.”
Asked if its destruction can be achieved in the coming months, he said: “There are chances.”
This would disrupt a key Russian supply line to Crimea, which was annexed by Putin in 2014.
Russia has mounted a huge operation to prevent the bridge from being hit by missiles or sea or aerial drones.
But two previous attacks have caused damage to the structure which spans the Kerch Strait between the Azov and Black seas.
In July last year, the specially developed homegrown marine kamikaze drone called Sea Baby loaded with 850 kg of explosives caused structural damage to the Crimean Bridge.
In October 2022, a bomb concealed in a truck exploded on the bridge, causing major damage.
Yet Russia has been able to continue using the crossing.
Ukraine has repeatedly vowed to destroy it.
Putin has long claimed his prized Kerch bridge – which he hailed a “miracle” upon its completion in 2018 – cannot be destroyed.
Ukraine says otherwise. For them, its target number one – a grotesque display of 10 years of Russian occupation.
Severing Russia’s only land bridge to Crimea would be a major step in winning the war in the Black Sea and choking Putin’s war machine.
Separately, Russia’s defence ministry showed what it claimed was a Buk-M3 air defence system destroying an incoming American-made ATACMS missile launched by the Ukrainian armed forces.
The annexation of Crimea
RUSSIA invaded the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 – sparking ten years of war between the two neighbours.
On February 20, 2014, unmarked Russian tanks moved into the Crimean peninsula and so began a grinding and painful war that would eventually be fought all across Ukraine.
Russian troops dubbed “little green men” appeared in uniforms without insignia or bearing any flags.
In under two months between February and March 2014, Putin’s forces seized strategic sites, installed their own illegally appointed officials and annexed the peninsula.
But two years on from Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and Crimea – once considered by Vlad a relative safezone – has become dangerously vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks.
It is now under fire from a wave of Storm Shadow missile and drone strikes, special ops raids and sabotage attacks, while far greater battles are expected.
Experts believe that taking Crimea could be a matter of a “death by a thousand cuts” for Putin as his stronghold is whittled down by the Ukrainians.
Former US General Ben Hodges told The Sun that since 2014, Ukraine’s goal has always been to win back Crimea.
“If Crimea falls, so could Putin,” he explained.
East2WestBuk-M3 SAM system destroyed an ATACMS missile launched by the AFU[/caption]