Today, Tuesday, a third Russian military airport caught fire after a drone strike, while senior Western officials said that the attack on air bases deep in Russia would deal a strong psychological blow to Moscow.

This comes a day after Russia confirmed that the Engels Air Base - which is the headquarters of the Russian strategic bomber fleet - and the Ryazan base, which is a few hours' drive from Moscow, were bombed on Monday by what it described as Soviet-era drones.

Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attacks but celebrated them, while Russia responded with a massive blow to the Ukrainian military surveillance system.

Roman Starovit, governor of the Russian Kursk region bordering Ukraine, said that the attack resulted in a fire in a fuel tank, without causing casualties.

It is noteworthy that the airport of this province has stopped receiving civilian flights since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine on February 24.

Crimea

In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that today, Tuesday, it shot down two drones in the sea near the city of Sevastopol in the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed that the air defenses responded to a Ukrainian attack on two military airports in the center and south of the country using Soviet-made drones.

Konashenkov admitted that 3 Russian soldiers were killed and 4 others were wounded, and two planes were damaged by the falling debris of the drones.

He added that the Russian forces launched massive air and sea strikes targeting the Ukrainian military command and control system, but the spokesman denied that the Russian strikes targeted the capital, Kyiv, on Monday.

Unconfirmed reasons

In turn, British intelligence said that the causes of the explosions at the Russian air base and airport on Monday are not confirmed yet.

She added that Russia said that the attacks were premeditated, and may consider it one of the most important strategic failures since it launched the war on its neighbor Ukraine.

British intelligence indicated that the Engels air base, where the explosion occurred yesterday, is the main base of operations for Russian long-range aviation.

For its part, the American New York Times quoted a Ukrainian official as saying that his country's army used drones to hit two bases in the heart of Russia.

The newspaper said that the drones took off from Ukrainian territory, destroying at least two planes in one of the two Russian bases, and damaging several others.

psychological blow

In the same context, Reuters quoted Western officials, whom it described as "senior", that the strikes had reached the deepest depths inside Russia since the start of its war on Ukraine on February 24.

"If they (Ukrainians) it shows that they can work inside Russia as they like, and that would worry the Russians very much, I think it deals a psychological blow," said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The officials expressed their confidence that Russia had kept its long-range strategic bombers at the Ingels base near the city of Saratov, stressing that it should now consider moving them, and that the attack might prompt the transfer of these bombers to separate locations.

Russia has been using strategic bombers since last October to destroy the Ukrainian power grid, in attacks that Western officials say reflect the increasing desperation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Moscow says its recent missile attacks target Ukrainian military command centers and associated energy facilities.