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The Russian Aviation Training Center for pilot training in Borisoglebsk, in the Voronezh region, reportedly came under attack by UAVs on Monday night.
Multiple videos, including night-vision CCTV footage, appeared to show a massive explosion hit the area where the Aviation Training Center is located.
The footage, published by Russian Telegram news channels The Insider and Astra, emerged as the Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that two enemy drones were destroyed by air defenses in the Voronezh region.
The latest drone strikes by Ukraine, which in recent months ravaged Russian industrial facilities, refineries and airfields, will deal a further blow to Russia's under-fire military.
Russia's air force has lost more than 650 aircraft since the start of the invasion, including planes, jets and helicopters, according to Kyiv. The attacks on airfields and training hubs could also exacerbate Russia's reported pilot shortages.
Ukrainian news agencies, citing sources in GUR, the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, suggested that Kyiv was behind the attack.
"This is a special operation of the GUR," one source told Interfax Ukraine.
"At night, the HUR drones attacked the Borisoglebsk Aviation Training Center in the Voronezh region," a source told another agency, UkrInform, noting that according to preliminary data, a production shop was hit.
This marks the latest in a series of painful drone strikes on strategically important Russian factories and military-linked facilities.
On April 2, 2024, a UAV attack on an industrial site in Russia's republic of Tatarstan, located more than 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, struck a plant that produces Shahed kamikaze drones.
A day earlier a huge fire broke out at the Uralmash factory, a Russian defense facility in the city of Yekaterinburg, following another alleged drone strike.
Ukraine typically does not claim responsibility for such attacks, in line with its usual policy of refraining from commenting on strikes that take place on Russian soil, though Kyiv previously confirmed it has drones capable of striking targets more than 700 miles away.
The Borisoglebsk attack also comes just days after a series of near-simultaneous strikes on four Russian air bases resulted in the reported destruction of six Russian military planes, while eight more were said to have been "damaged."
Ukrainian media reported in the aftermath, citing unnamed security officials, that the SBU and Ukrainian forces carried out successful strikes on airfields near Kursk and Yeysk, Krasnodar Krai, as well as the previously targeted Engels Air Base in Saratov Oblast, and the Morozovsk Air Base in Rostov Oblast.
In a statement released on the morning of April 9, 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the latest enemy drone attacks, but insisted the attempted attacks were "stopped."
"Over the past night, attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks using aircraft-type UAVs and a Neptune anti-ship missile against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were stopped," the ministry said.
"Our air defense systems destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Belgorod (2 UAVs) and Voronezh (2 UAVs) regions, and a Ukrainian missile was destroyed over the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula," it claimed.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment via email.
Update 4/9/24, 6:51 a.m. EDT: This article was updated with more information and context.
About the writer
Yevgeny Kuklychev is Newsweek's London-based Senior Editor for Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He previously headed Newsweek's Misinformation Watch and ... Read more