War

One thousand one hundred and ninety-fourth day. Operation Web: Ukrainian drones attacked military airfields in four regions of Russia. Bridges collapsed in Bryansk and Kursk regions

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters in our daily materials because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. How do you feel about the ongoing war? How is it affecting you personally right now? How has your attitude to what is happening, to Russia, to Ukraine, to the world changed over these three years of war? Find the feedback form at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

Russia

Ukrainian drone attack on Russian military airfields

On the afternoon of June 1, UAF drones attacked Russian military airfields. The strikes, Ukrainian media reported citing a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), were carried out at aviation bases in the Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Murmansk and Ryazan regions. In the Murmansk region, drones reportedly attacked the Russian strategic aviation base Olenya near Olenegorsk on the Kola Peninsula, and in the Irkutsk region, the Belaya air base near the village of Usolye-Sibirskoye. In the Ryazan region, the target of the drones was the Dyaghilevo airfield, in the Ivanovo region - the Ivanovo airfield, sources in the SBU said.

The BBC Russian Service and RBC-Ukraine, citing a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), reported that the strikes were carried out as part of Operation Web, which was personally commanded by the head of the SBU, Vasily Malyuk.

A source in the SBU claims that they managed to hit more than 40 aircraft, including A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft and Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 missile-carrying bombers. In total, RBC-Ukraine wrote, aircraft worth a total of more than two billion dollars were damaged.

The head of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, confirmed the drone strike in the region in his telegram channel, emphasizing that this is the first drone attack in Siberia.

Kobzev also reported that drones in the Usolsky district, where the Belaya airbase is located, were launched from a truck. Eyewitnesses, Baza writes , said that drones were also launched from a truck parked at a gas station at the entrance to Olenegorsk in the Murmansk region. The driver of the truck, eyewitnesses say, was detained. There was no official confirmation of this information at the time of publication of the material.

The head of the Murmansk region, Andrei Chibis, confirmed the drone strike on the territory of the region, did not provide any details of what happened, only calling on residents to remain calm and refrain from publishing photos and videos on social networks.

The head of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, wrote in his telegram channel that “a fragment of a downed UAV damaged the roof of one of the residential buildings, material damage is being assessed.” People, he said, were not injured. The governor did not specify which objects were attacked by drones. The head of the Ivanovo region, Stanislav Voskresensky, did not report drone strikes at the time of publication of the material.

RBC-Ukraine's sources in the SBU stated that Operation Web had been prepared for about 1.5 years. The progress of preparations was supervised by the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. According to sources, this operation was difficult from a logistical point of view. “The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and then mobile wooden houses. Later, on the territory of the Russian Federation, drones were hidden under the roofs of houses placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were opened remotely, the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,” writes RBC-Ukraine.

The publication’s sources called the operation “historic,” adding that its participants are already in Ukraine. “Therefore, if the Putin regime demonstratively detains someone, then this will be another staging,” the publication quotes them as saying.

As of 16:00 Moscow time, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on reports of attacks on air bases. There was no official reaction from the Ukrainian authorities at this point either.

Bridges collapsed in the Bryansk and Kursk regions. There are dead and injured

On the night of June 1, in the Vygonichsky district of the Bryansk region, a road bridge collapsed when a Klimov-Moscow passenger train was passing under it. According to authorities, the accident killed seven people and injured 69 others. 47 people were hospitalized, three of them, including a child, are in serious condition. Also, when the bridge collapsed, the driver of a truck transporting Miratorg products, who was driving across the bridge at the time of the collapse, was injured. The governor of the region, Alexander Bogomaz, spoke about “blowing up the bridge.” Three days of mourning for the victims have been declared in the Bryansk region.

In the Kursk region, on the night of June 1, in the Zheleznogorsk district, a railway bridge over which a freight train was traveling fell onto a highway. The locomotive caught fire, but the fire was quickly contained. The crew of drivers was taken to the hospital. One of them had injured legs. According to Shot and Baza, the bridge was also blown up. The head of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, has not yet given any reasons for the incident, saying only that the circumstances of the bridge collapse are being clarified.

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

Anonymous reader (Moscow region). They tell us about negotiations and that our side is ready for peace. But no one believes in it anymore.

Over the past three months it has become completely creepy. If earlier we only heard news that so many drones had been shot down somewhere and that there were no casualties, now we have experienced everything firsthand. At first, at night they announced a missile danger and turned on the sirens, but then nothing happened. Now drones are being shot down every night.

There has been a powerful attack in our area over the past two weeks. For two days the claps continued day and night. Houses nearby were damaged; a window in my room was broken. The next night I slept on the floor in the hallway. And only later, when it was no longer possible to “calm down” the people, they reported that there were about 60 damaged houses and there were also casualties.

They turn off the mobile Internet for several days, sometimes you can’t even get through to anyone or find out how your loved ones are doing. Typically, before the introduction of such measures, there were no attacks on residential buildings. They don’t care about people, we are consumables for them. I want all this to end as soon as possible. People on both sides should not suffer and live in fear because the authorities decided to play shooter games.

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