At least three dead after drone attack on Russian airfield
Moscow/Lviv, Dec 26 (EFE).- At least three soldiers were killed Monday in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Engels military airfield in southern Russia, about 500 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, according to the Russian defense ministry.
“On December 26, at around 01:35 Moscow time, a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down at low altitude while approaching the Engels military airfield in the Saratov region,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry reported that four other people were injured and that two aircraft sustained minor damage.
The three soldiers died of falling fragments from the drones, it added, stressing the aircraft technology was not damaged.
This is not the first drone attack on a Russian airfield. On December 5, the Russian military leadership claimed they had intercepted several Ukrainian drones at Engels, as well as the Dyagilevo airbase, located in the Ryazan region.
Meanwhile, Russian troops launched missile attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukrainian territory on Monday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation that “Russia lost everything it could this year.
“But it is trying to compensate for its losses with the gloating of its propagandists after the missile strikes at our country, at our energy sector.
“I know that the darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to their new defeats. But we have to be ready for any scenario.”
Nataliya Humeniuk, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern defense forces, warned that Russians are preparing for a massive attack in Ukraine before the end of this year.
“It is obvious that the Russians are preparing for something. At present, one surface and two underwater missile carriers have been deployed, which makes up a total of 16 Kalibr missiles,” she said.
Humeniuk also referred to the massive barrage of missiles Russia launched in Ukraine on December 5.
“We are ready for this. We are aware that such a strike is possible,” she stressed.
In addition, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba formally requested Russia’s exclusion from the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
“Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN to resume the application of the UN Charter in the context of the legitimacy of the Russian Federation’s presence in the UN, to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” a foreign ministry statement read.
To exclude a country from the organization, two-thirds of the General Assembly members must vote in favor and the decision must be ratified by the Security Council.EFE
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