Ukrainian drones struck several military bases in the depths of Russia on Sunday in a major operation one day before the neighbors last peace talks in Istanbul.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military aerodromes In five regions, causing the fire of several planes.
The attacks took place in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur. The air defenses have pushed the attacks in all regions except two – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said.
“In the regions of Murmansk and Irkutsk, the launch of FPV drones from an area near the aerodromes led several planes to set fire,” said the Defense Ministry. FPV drones are unmanned air vehicles with cameras at the front which relay live images to operators, who in turn use these visuals to direct drones.
The fires were extinguished and no victim was reported. Some people involved in the attacks had been held, said the Russian Defense Ministry.
Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the attack on “absolutely brilliant” Ukrainian drones against the Telegram messaging application.
But Sunday attacks were only the last of a daring series of successes on Russian military facilities, the territory and the symbols of power in the last three years of war – often recognized by kyiv, and in some cases largely raw have been led by Ukrainian special forces.
What happened on June 1?
Zelenskyy said 117 drones had been used to attack the Russian bases on Sunday. “Russia has undergone very tangible losses, and rightly so,” he said.
The Ukraine Security Service (SBU) said that it had struck Russian military planes with a combined value of $ 7 billion in a wave of drone strikes on the Russian air bases thousands of kilometers behind the first line.
The targets included the Belaya air base in Irkutsk, about 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the Ukrainian border and the Olenya air base in the south of Murmansk, about 1,800 km (1120 miles) of Ukraine.
Earlier Sunday, several local media reports in Ukraine said that the operation had been carried out by SBU using drones deeply smuggling in Russia and hidden inside the trucks.
At least 41 Russian heavy bombers with four airlines have been affected, reports. The strikes would have struck the strategic bombers Tu-95 and Tu-22, which Russia uses to dismiss long-range missiles in Ukrainian cities.
Russia has not yet confirmed the extent of the damage, but the attack could mark the most damaging drone strike in Ukraine to date.
John Hendren of Al Jazeera, postponing from kyiv, said that it was “a bold strike, a strike that Ukraine has been waiting for a long time and that it is patiently, and it occurred after Russian air strikes in Ukraine have accelerated considerably in recent weeks”.
What is the backdrop?
Russia and Ukraine have suddenly increased their drone attacks Against the other side in recent days.
Russia launched Over 900 suicide bomber and 92 missiles last week, killing at least 16 civilians. These attacks have followed days of Ukrainian strikes on Russian military infrastructure in the Russian regions of Tula, Alabuga and Tatarstan, in which kyiv used at least 800 drones.
Meanwhile, Ukraine sent a delegation to Istanbul led by its Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov on Monday with Russian officials. A previous series of talks on May 16, led to an agreement in which Ukraine and Russia exchanged 1,000 prisoners of war each. Monday’s talks led to an agreement on another exchange of prisoners.
Zelenskyy, who previously expressed skepticism as to the seriousness of Russia about peace talks, said that the Ukrainian delegation would enter the meeting in Istanbul with specific priorities, including “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abduced children.
Russia has said that it has formulated its own peace conditions and excluded a Turkish proposal for the meeting to be held at the level of the leaders.
Monday’s meeting in Turkiye was stimulated by US President Donald Trump’s push for a quick agreement to end the three -year war. But the meeting did not lead to any major breakthrough.
Trump, who has more and more demonstrated his frustration in the face of the lack of progress towards a cease-fire, recently evacuated his frustration to the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Something happened to him,” Trump wrote on his social media platform on May 25, referring to Putin. “He has gone absolutely crazy!”
Trump told journalists: “We are talking about and he pulls rockets in kyiv and other cities.”
The American president has not yet reacted to the Ukrainian attacks on Sunday against the Russian air bases.
Strikes are the last of a series of breathtaking attacks and which have made the headlines that Russia has periodically suffered since it launched Ukraine’s full -fledged invasion in February 2022.
Crimea Bridge Attacks, 2022 and 2023
In May 2018, four years after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, Putin led a truck through a newly built bridge connecting the Russian continent to the peninsula, causing the Ukrainians.
Ukraine would take revenge, first in 2022, then again in 2023.
In October 2022, an explosion of trucks that Russia blamed Ukraine exploded part of the bridge. Russia has repaired the damage, and Putin tried to rekindle the symbolism of 2018, crossing it again, this time in a Mercedes.
But Ukraine would strike again. In July 2023, the bridge This serves as a crucial supply for Russian forces in Ukraine has been exploded. The Russian National Anti -Terrorism Committee said that the strike had been made by two Ukrainian sea drones. The officials said Two people were killed And a child was injured.
Black sea fleet attacks, 2023
In September 2023Ukraine has launched a series of attacks against occupied Crimea, using drones and missiles to target key installations of the Russian Black Sea fleet near Sébastopol.
The satellite images have shown that the first attack destroyed half the Command Center for Communications of the Black Sea fleet in Verkhnosadove.
Ukraine followed this attack with a strike against Saky in Crimea aerodrome, which hosted 12 Russian combat aircraft, including SU-24 and Su-30-Bombers, according to the Ukrainian broadcaster Susilne.
Then came the most devastating of the attacks on September 22.
Ukraine struck the siege of command of the Black Sea fleet and said that they had killed 34 officers, including the commander of the Admiral Fleet Viktor Sokolov. 105 other soldiers were reportedly injured.
Kremlin Attack, 2023
In night death in early May 2023, the ultimate symbol of Russian power for centuries – the Kremlin – was attacked, while lightning of small explosions above the citadel of the red building were seen in images and a granular video from all over the world.
Moscow said two Ukrainian drones had been used in the Attack on Putin’s residenceBut had been handicapped by electronic defenses.
“We consider these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempted life of the president, carried out on the eve of the day of victory, the parade of May 9, during which the presence of foreign guests is also planned,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Zelenskyy denied that his country had attacked the Russian capital or its president.
“We are not attacking Putin, or Moscow, we are fighting on our territory,” said Zelenskyy at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland. But independent analysts, including Western nations which are Ukrainian allies, think that the Ukrainian special forces were behind drone attacks against the Kremlin.
And a year later, Ukraine would blur the border between its territory and the Russian lands in the climbing of war between the neighbors.
Kursk Invasion, 2024 and 2025
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on the Kursk region August 6, 2024, taking Moscow by surprise. Russia began to evacuate the neighbor Belgorod region Because the country’s forces were forced to confront Ukraine’s offensive in western Russia.
At the height of the incursion, the Ukrainian forces claimed nearly 1,400 square kilometers (540 square miles) of Kursk – about twice the size of Singapore.
At the beginning of 2025, Russia had most of the territory it had lost in Kursk before Ukraine launched a second wave of attacks in January.
However, Kyiv suffered a major setback earlier this year after Trump temporarily cut all military and intelligence aid. At the beginning of March, Russia had taken up most of the territory.