Russian authoritiessaid Thursday that a Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at a military site that some observers identified as an airfield housing warplanes that may be involved in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.Volgograd region Governor Andrei Bocharov said Russian air defenses repelled a drone attack near the village of Marinovka, around 300 kilometers east of the border with Ukraine and the site of a Russian airforce base.As a result of a drone crash, a fire broke out on a defense ministry facility, Bocharov wrote on Telegram.
Fire and rescue services promptly started firefighting efforts.
There were no casualties.Russias defense ministry did not immediately comment on the reported fire, saying only that its forces destroyed 13 drones over the Volgograd region as part of wider Ukrainian drone attacks across the country overnight.Eyewitness videospublished by the independent Telegram news channel Astrashowed thick smoke and explosions at what was claimed to be the Marinovka airbase.
Several fires at the Marinovka base were laterrecorded by NASA observation satellites.Open-source intelligence bloggerssaid at least 14 Su-24 and 15 Su-34 bomber aircraft were housed at Marinovka earlier this week.Russias investigative news outlet iStories, citing state media,reported that Marinkas Su-34s may have been used to bomb Ukrainian targets in southwestern Russias Kursk region earlier in the day.The Volgograd Internaional Airport temporarily grounded all flights earlier Thursday.