Ukraine said on Saturday its long-range strikes had hit a Russian military airfield and a rocket centre that Kyiv says supports Russia’s nascent Starlink-style satellite internet network.
“It is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Flamingo cruise missiles struck the rocket facility, about 900 km (560 miles) from Ukraine’s border, as part of Kyiv’s campaign to pressure Moscow to end the more than four-year war by targeting sites deep inside Russia. Seven hours later, at around 1215 local time, he said emergency services were still dealing with the aftermath, without providing further details. On Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry said in the past 24 hours its drones, missiles and artillery had struck Ukrainian logistics centres and fuel, energy, and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army, as well as assembly workshops for long-range drones and drone boats.
Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia – through concrete damage to specific facilities,” he said in a post on X. He said the airfield hosted aircraft used to attack Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff said direct hits were recorded at both the airfield in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region and the Progress rocket and space centre in Samara region. It said the strikes had sparked fires at both sites. Overnight, Samara’s regional governor said a missile had struck an unidentified industrial facility. A long-range drone storage facility in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region was among the targets hit, the ministry said.
