Ukraine says destroyed army transport plane in Russia

Kyiv said Monday its forces had destroyed a Russian military transport plane stationed at an airfield deep inside Russian territory over the weekend, the latest Ukrainian claim of an attack behind Moscow’s lines.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks inside Russian territory in recent months, targeting military sites and energy facilities, aiming to upend Russian military logistics.

Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said it had destroyed the Tu-134 transport aircraft overnight between Saturday and Sunday at a military airfield in the Orenburg region, which lies around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

“These Soviet-built airplanes are used mainly to transport leadership of the Russian defence ministry,” the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said on social media.

The agency posted footage of what Ukraine said was an arson attack, showing a blaze burning inside an aircraft, but it did not provide details of how the alleged attack was carried out.

There was no immediate comment on the specific claims from Moscow.

Since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has detained hundreds of people for alleged sabotage and arson attacks on military, railway and other infrastructure sites. (BSS/AFP)