‘Unknown Saboteurs’ Blow Up Two Planes and Helicopter Near Moscow, Kyiv Says

Two Russian planes and a helicopter have been “significantly damaged” in an attack carried out by “unknown saboteurs” on one of the Kremlin’s main military airfields, 30 km northeast of Moscow.

In a post on Telegram, the Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) said the operation was carried out on Monday at the Chkalovsky Air Base and “caused quite a bit of hysteria in the higher military corridors.”

The HUR added: “Unknown saboteurs… planted explosives and detonated AN-148 and IL-20 aircraft (both belong to the 354th special purpose aviation regiment) at the airfield, which is carefully guarded, as well as the MI-28N [Havoc] helicopter, which was actively involved in shooting down attack drones over Moscow region.”

According to the HUR, the “quite a bit of hysteria” is due to the fact the airfield is home to so-called “doomsday planes,” aircraft designed to protect President Putin in the event of a nuclear conflict, also referred to as the “Flying Kremlin.”

There has been no comment on the incident from Russian authorities. 

The Chkalovsky Air Base is a major Russian military base and also provides support and services for elements of the country’s space program.

It was the airfield from which Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, took off from on a doomed training flight that resulted in his death in March 1968.

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Although who exactly was behind the attack on airport is currently unknown, Ukrainian partisans have scored some notable successes in occupied areas of the country in recent weeks.

Russian troops recruited into the ranks of Ukrainian partisan units are even killing their own soldiers in sabotage operations in exchange for cash or the opportunity to live abroad, Kyiv Post was told earlier this week.

In the latest incident, a Russian soldier allegedly placed 10 kilograms of explosives between two trucks at a military base in the occupied city of Henichesk, in Kherson region at the border with the Crimean Peninsula.

According to ATESH, the partisan movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, they orchestrated the operation in which an improvised explosive device was detonated as troops boarded the vehicles.

“Result: two trucks with personnel were destroyed,” the group said in a post on Telegram.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Kyiv confirmed that Ukrainian missiles were behind explosions on Wednesday near a Russian airfield in occupied Crimea.

In a comment to Kyiv Post, spokesperson of the Main Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR), Andriy Yusov, said: “Missile strikes are being launched on the military facilities of the invaders in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian Crimea.”

Read the full report here.