{"id":262904,"date":"2025-03-20T12:43:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T12:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/ukraine-attacks-air-base-deep-inside-russia\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T12:43:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T12:43:04","slug":"ukraine-attacks-air-base-deep-inside-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/ukraine-attacks-air-base-deep-inside-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Attacks Air Base Deep Inside Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/newsgraphics\/images\/icons\/defaultPromoCrop.png?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ukraine Attacks Air Base Deep Inside Russia\" title=\"Ukraine Attacks Air Base Deep Inside Russia\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine attacked an airfield deep inside Russian territory overnight, officials said on Thursday, as the two sides traded strikes amid efforts by the Trump administration to hammer out details of a partial cease-fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The attack on the Russian airfield came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine spoke to President Trump and accepted the Kremlin\u2019s offer to mutually pause attacks on energy targets for 30 days as a step toward a broader cease-fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia\u2019s defense ministry said that it had shot down 54 Ukrainian drones in the Saratov region overnight. The region is home to the Engels airfield, which hosts some of Russia\u2019s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While the ministry did not say how many drones had evaded air defenses, The New York Times confirmed that at least one strike targeted the airfield in Engels shortly after sunrise on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Videos and photographs shared by witnesses on social media and verified by The Times showed an explosion and a large plume of dark smoke rising from the base, and loud secondary explosions after the strike. The strike appeared to target a part of the airfield with several warehouses, which is described online as a weapons storage area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said on Thursday that civilians living near the airfield were being evacuated \u201cfor safety reasons\u201d because of a fire on the base. About 30 houses were damaged overnight, he added in a post on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine\u2019s military <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/GeneralStaffZSU\/22192\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed<\/a> in a statement that had attacked the airfield. Kyiv has previously targeted the base, which it calls a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/05\/world\/europe\/ukraine-russia-military-bases.html\" title=\"\">staging ground<\/a> for Russia\u2019s long-running attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russian forces also carried out further strikes on Ukraine overnight. Ukraine\u2019s air force said on Thursday that Russia had launched 171 drones, 63 of which were shot down by air defenses. At least five people were killed and injured across the country, according to local authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to temporarily stop targeting each other&#8217;s energy infrastructure, how and when that pause will go into effect remains unclear. Those details were expected to be discussed at upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia \u2014 and Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday night that \u201ceverything will continue to fly\u201d until \u201cthere is an appropriate document\u201d negotiating terms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Thursday, the Kremlin said that Russian and U.S. officials were hammering out the details for a new round of bilateral talks, including who would attend. Those talks could take place early next week, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told Russian news agencies, without specifying a date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Zelensky has characterized some of the Kremlin\u2019s proposals as stalling tactics to maneuver for military advantage and a better deal from Mr. Trump. On Thursday morning, he suggested the same in noting that Russian attacks had not stopped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEvery day and every night up to a hundred drones and missile attacks also do not stop,\u201d he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/V_Zelenskiy_official\/13633\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on Telegram<\/a>. \u201cWith every such strike Russia shows the world its real attitude to peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Nataliia Novosolova<!-- -->, <!-- -->Nataliya Vasilyeva<!-- --> and <!-- -->Malachy Browne<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/20\/world\/europe\/ukraine-attacks-russia-airbase-engels-drones.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukraine attacked an airfield deep inside Russian territory overnight, officials said on Thursday, as the two sides traded strikes amid efforts by the Trump administration to hammer out details of a partial cease-fire. The attack on the Russian airfield came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine spoke to President Trump and accepted the Kremlin\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/newsgraphics\/images\/icons\/defaultPromoCrop.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[721,1179,722,2481,163575,168195,163573,202,52,1130,34139,8774],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262906,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262904\/revisions\/262906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}