Dec 7 (Reuters) – A third Russian airfield was set on fire by a drone strike a day after Ukraine demonstrated an apparent new ability to penetrate hundreds of miles into Russia with attacks on two airbases.
Officials in the Russian city of Kursk, about 90 km (60 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, released photos of black smoke above an airfield after the latest strike on Tuesday. The governor said an oil storage tank caught fire but there were no casualties.
On Monday, Russia said it was hit hundreds of miles from Ukraine by what it said were Soviet-era drones – at Engels Air Base, home to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, and in Ryazan, a few hours drive from Moscow.
Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the strikes, but celebrated them nonetheless.
Late Tuesday, sirens sounded at Engels airfield, Russian news agencies reported, citing the first deputy of the district administration.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated his country’s determination to provide Ukraine with the necessary equipment for its defense, while affirming that it had neither encouraged nor allowed the Ukrainians to strike inside Russia .
US lawmakers have agreed to provide Ukraine with at least $800 million in additional security aid next year.
The Russian Defense Ministry said three servicemen were killed in the Ryazan attack. Although the attacks hit military targets, she called them terrorism and said the goal was to disable her long-range planes.
Ukraine has never publicly acknowledged its responsibility for the attacks inside Russia. Asked about the strikes, Defense Minister Oleskiy Reznikov repeated a long-standing joke blaming cigarette negligence. “Very often Russians smoke in places where smoking is not allowed,” he said.
Neighboring Belarus, a close ally of Russia, plans to move military equipment and forces on Wednesday and Thursday to check its response to terrorism, state news agency BelTA reported, adding that dummy weapons would be used for the attack. ‘coaching.
Ukraine has for months expressed fears that Belarus and Russia are planning a joint incursion across Ukraine’s northern border, despite Belarus saying it will not go to war.
“LEVERAGE AND CONTROL”
At least 20 tankers queuing off Turkey face more delays crossing Russian Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean as operators rush to adhere to new Turkish insurance rules added ahead of a cap on G7 price on Russian oil, industry sources said.
The disruption to tanker traffic is not the result of Russian oil price caps agreed by a coalition of G7 countries and Australia, an official with the group said.
The price cap of $60 a barrel was imposed on Monday at a level higher than the current price of Urals crude from Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter.
The G7 countries and Australia would be busy in the coming weeks determining two more price cap levels for Russian refined petroleum products that should be in place by February 5, a US Treasury official told Reuters. .
“I think the point is that we have all the leverage and all the control now that we’ve been able to set the cap at $60,” the official said. “Any adjustment will be in the interest of the G7 and it will be in the interest of Ukraine, it will be in the interest of the global economy and it will not be in the interest of Russia.”
ZELENSKY WITH THE TROOPS
On battlefields in eastern, northeastern and southern Ukraine, Russian forces continued their bombardment of towns and villages, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday.
Six people were killed when Donetsk came under rocket and artillery fire, the city’s Russian-installed mayor Alexander Kulemzin reported on his Telegram channel.
“Look what they did,” said a resident named Irina, pointing to the building where her apartment had been destroyed. “There are people who live there… Go to the fields and fight there, not here.”
Dmytro Zhyvytsky, the governor of the Sumy region on the Russian border, said several people were injured when Russian forces fired 226 shells at seven communities during the day.
War crimes investigators have been investigating the deaths of hundreds of civilians since the start of the nearly 10-month-long conflict. Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls a special operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops near front lines in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
Speaking to the military later in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he spent the day with troops in Donbass, the scene of the fiercest battles, and in the Kharkiv region, where the Ukrainians have taken over swaths of territory. to Russian forces.
“Thousands of Ukrainians gave their lives so that the day would come when not a single occupation soldier will remain in our land and all our people will be free,” Zelenskiy said, dressed in his khaki green, at the rally. .
Reports from Reuters offices; Written by Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Robert Birsel
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