“Today our region was massively attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, our air defense shot down 10 UAVs,” Starovoyt stated in a Telegram message. “Thanks to all our military and concerned citizens who reported on incoming drones.”
There was no speedy official response from Kyiv. An official with Ukraine’s SBU safety service, talking on the situation of anonymity to debate a delicate matter, instructed The Washington Post on Friday that the substation was shut down on account of “a successful attack” close to the border.
Russia has lately reported a rise in tried drone assaults by Ukraine. Ukrainian officers have emphasised that targets inside Russia are a part of the battle.
On Thursday, a Ukrainian drone destroyed a Russian radar system in the identical space, an SBU supply instructed Ukrainian outlet Hromadske.
The system, known as Kasta, is a cellular surveillance radar meant to detect and repel threats flying at low altitudes. It was positioned close to the village of Giri, round 100 kilometers from regional hub Kursk and fewer than 20 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
“The Russians have said that it can detect even stealth aircraft, but it missed the SBU drone for some reason,” an SBU supply instructed Hromadske.
The uptick in assaults — this week alone noticed extra airborne assaults reported within the Kursk region than throughout all of August — prompted native authorities to induce residents to report any drone sightings. Russia has lately rolled out a cellphone app that permits witnesses to report incoming drones or different airborne assaults to the safety providers. The program is much like the ePPO software that has operated in Ukraine for a 12 months.
Russian areas within the west of the nation have labored to bolster their air defenses as Ukrainian forces develop extra brazen. Their assaults — together with a number of drone strikes that reached the Kremlin and the skyscrapers of Moscow’s enterprise district — have rattled even the residents of Russia’s capital, lots of of miles away from Ukraine.
“If you find a drone, do not touch or approach it, report it and wait for specialists,” Starovoyt stated. “Even debris can be dangerous!”
Earlier this week, Ukrainian media reported {that a} group of Russian officers despatched to look at an intercepted Ukrainian kamikaze drone within the Kursk space have been “injured or killed” when a delay-action explosive went off. Though Russian navy officers haven’t confirmed or commented on the incident, some distinguished pro-invasion navy bloggers in Russia reported on the occasion.
“One of the fallen drones turned out to have a ‘surprise,” wrote blogger Boris Rozhin. “Previously, the enemy had already used such tactics in the Kherson direction, where several drones shot down and landed with the help of electronic warfare blew up after they were detected.”
The UAV attack on Friday marked the third time the local electrical grid was reportedly targeted in the Kursk region. On Tuesday, a drone dropped an explosive on an electrical substation in the village of Snagost, leaving seven nearby settlements without power, and a mortar mine knocked out a power supply line in another small village of Popovo-Lezhachi, local authorities said.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, stated in mid-September that the nation’s navy aims when launching drones in Russia search to deplete rival air protection techniques, injury navy plane and sluggish the manufacturing of Russian weapons.
A 3rd of Russian navy factories are positioned within the western a part of Russia, which is more and more inside attain of Ukrainian drones, Budanov instructed Ukrainian outlet NV, citing current assaults on the Kremni-El plant in Bryansk, one of many largest makers of microelectronics which might be reportedly utilized in Iskander missile complexes, and Redkino Experimental Plant in Tver region that produces rocket gasoline.
As Ukraine continues its counteroffensive efforts, Moscow seems to be getting ready for an extended struggle, bloating the navy finances for subsequent 12 months and reforming “volunteer battalions” from what’s left of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, whose boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin was killed in a murky aircraft crash a month in the past — and two months after staging a short-lived mutiny.
Russia will improve its navy spending by about 68 % subsequent 12 months, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, citing the draft finances compiled by the Finance Ministry.
“Obviously, such an increase is necessary because we are living in a state of hybrid warfare,” he stated. “This requires high spending.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin met late on Thursday with one of the vital senior Wagner ex-commanders, Andrei Troshev, identified by his nom de guerre Sedoi. The Kremlin stated that Troshev now works for the Defense Ministry, a possible end result of efforts among the many nation’s prime brass to deliver Wagner beneath its management following a bitter public feud between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the now-deceased Prigozhin.
Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was in attendance alongside Putin. Yevkurov has lately been touring Africa and the Middle East, visiting capitals the place Wagner had varied safety contracts in an obvious transfer to soak up their dealings past Russian borders.
Putin instructed Troshev to work on forming “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation,” a Kremlin euphemism for the struggle in Ukraine.
Telegram channels near the Wagner Group that had beforehand amplified Prigozhin’s expletive-laden rants towards Shoigu contested on Friday the Kremlin’s message that the group is now solely beneath navy management, claiming that solely a fraction of Wagner fighters switched sides.
Kamila Hrabchuk contributed to this report.
