http://archive.today/2025.06.03-115501/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/world/europe/russia-ukraine-strikes.html
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian drones had attacked airfields in five regions stretching across five time zones. Several aircraft caught fire in the regions of Murmansk, near the border with Norway, and Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, the ministry said in a statement. It said that the other attacks were repelled, and that there were no casualties.
The attack in Irkutsk, on the Belaya air base, was the first time any place in Siberia had come under attack by Ukraine’s drones since the war began in February 2022. The Olenya base in the Murmansk region, which also came under attack, is one of Russia’s key strategic airfields, hosting nuclear-capable aircraft.
An official in Ukraine’s security services, known as the S.B.U., who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive intelligence operation, said that dozens of aircraft had been damaged in the strikes. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm that claim, or the details from Russia’s Defense Ministry.
The official said that Ukrainian officers had secretly transported drones into Russian territory on trucks and launched them from those vehicles. That also could not be confirmed, but Russia’s Defense Ministry said that drones used in the Murmansk and Irkutsk attacks had been launched from the immediate vicinity of the airfields.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on social media that planning for the operation had begun a year and a half ago, and that those involved in the attacks had been withdrawn from Russia before they took place.