Ukraine blitzed a Russian military airfield taking out a bomb-making warehouse as well as two oil refineries in Vladimir Putin's favorite vacation region.
Dozens of kamikaze drones struck Krasnodar region where the dictator has two sprawling palaces and a presidential ski lodge. The attacks came as Russia staged a hypersonic missile strike on Ukrainian power stations using their Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers - triggering NATO to scramble warplanes in neighboring Poland twice in one night.
Local reports said warplanes and airport buildings were damaged at Kushchevskaya military airfield by Ukrainian strikes in Russia's Krasnodar region. Footage showed damage to a warehouse reportedly containing the parts of aerial bombs used by Russia to inflict carnage in Ukraine.
Planes were also damaged, according to sources cited by independent ASTRA media, but there were no details. There was a fire at the airfield where Su-27 and Su-34 are kept. In Slavyansk-on-Kuban in the same region Ukrainian drones hit the Ilsky and Slavyansky oil refineries with multiple explosions.
After the attack, fires broke out at both facilities with reports of significant damage. Managers at the Slavyansk refinery said: “The refinery has partially stopped working. Ten drones attacked the refinery last night. They got into, among other things, oil refining installations.”
Some 68 kamikaze drones were unleashed on Krasnodar region overnight. Putin rules Russia from here, especially for long periods during the summer months. Two of his palaces are on the Black Sea, an official residence in Sochi, the other a giant private
The Russian defense ministry suggested that it downed all the drones, not accounting for what were clearly successful strikes in Ukraine. "Over the past night, attempts by the Kiev regime to carry out terrorist attacks using aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were stopped," said the Russian defense ministry.