Six Russian Il-76 Planes, Tu-22 Bomber Hit in Night Drone Raid on Pskov

A drone strike has destroyed or damaged up to seven aircraft in northwestern Russia, according to Russian-language media which reported overnight attacks in several regions by unmanned aerial vehicles.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for a spike in drone strikes on its territory in recent weeks, many of which hit military targets in attacks that Kyiv does not directly claim responsibility for.

British defense officials said last week that strikes on airbases may have come from within Russian territory, following the targeting of a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber in the Novgorod oblast, located hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border.

In one of the latest incidents, Russian state media said on Wednesday that four Ilyushin-76 transport planes had been hit overnight in the Pskov oblast, a region which borders the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, both European Union and NATO members.

The Ilyushin Il-76 is a Soviet-era fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter which delivers heavy machinery. It is commonly used as an aerial refueling tanker or command center.

The eastern European news outlet Nexta reported that seven planes in total had been affected by the strikes. Two Ilyushins had been completely destroyed, another four had been damaged and a Tupolev Tu-22 supersonic bomber had also been damaged.

Regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov posted video on his Telegram channel filmed from a residential building showing flames from a distance going into the night sky. Not much was visible in a subsequent clip he shared although bangs could be heard. Other video shared on social media shows flames and smoke at the site.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that there were no civilian flights overnight from Pskov airport and that following the incident the airspace over the Pskov region had been restricted. A fire broke out on the premises at the airfield and two of the aircraft were engulfed in flames, which required 65 firefighters to extinguish.

Vedernikov said that according to preliminary information that the incident was not "serious" although "at night it is difficult to verify this."

"Thank God there were no victims and the scale of the damage is still being assessed," he said in a video message delivered as he stood next to two first responders. He said that the airspace would be closed on Wednesday, but the airport would resume normal operations on Thursday.

It came as Russia blamed Ukraine for other drone attacks overnight which caused authorities to close the airspace over the Moscow and neighboring Tula oblasts. Tass also reported that there had been attempted drone strikes over Bryansk and Oryol regions which had been thwarted by air defense units.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the Ryazan oblast, southeast of Moscow. Another drone was downed in the Kaluga region, located southwest of the Russian capital, Tass reported.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said Russia's Black Sea Fleet was repelling a drone attack near the central bay of the city in occupied Crimea.

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment.