The blasts that targeted two military installations deep inside Russia on Monday included an airfield that served as a base for bombers allegedly used in Moscow’s relentless strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Russia blamed the explosions on Ukraine and said it had intercepted low-flying drones in the area. Astra, an independent Russian news channel on Telegram, reported that the attack damaged two Tupolev Tu-95 strategic nuclear bombers and killed at least three Russian service members. The Tu-95s can carry the type of cruise missiles used to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure, and normally play an important part in Russia’s strategic forces and nuclear deterrence capabilities.
Both bases are far from the Ukrainian border, and the drones would have had to travel up to 400 miles undetected to reach them — signaling a potentially serious security lapse by Russia.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
4. From our correspondents
She fled Russian occupation by boat. Minutes later, she was shot: Nowhere feels safe along the Dnieper River. What was once a main draw of Kherson, a waterway that helped turn this regional capital into a major Ukrainian port city, the Dnieper River has now become a front line — and a source of constant peril for those living on either side of it, write Samantha Schmidt and Serhii Korolchuk.
For weeks, Dmytro Matiukha had urged his in-laws to leave their cottage on the east bank. But just minutes after they left on Sunday, Matiukha received a call from his father-in-law.
“Mom was hit,” said Vladyslav Svitlov, 76. “What do I do?”
At least four bullets pierced through the side of their small motorboat. Tetiana Svitlova, 75, was crouching low in the boat when the gunfire struck her in the abdomen. She reached her arm toward her husband briefly before collapsing into the boat.
