Ukraine releases new footage of drone attack on Russian strategic bombers

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine released new footage on Wednesday of its major drone strike on four Russian military airbases, showing attack drones targeting numerous Russian strategic bombers and landing on two airborne early warning and control planes.

Ukrainian authorities say Sunday's attack on the airfields using 117 drones hit 41 military aircraft. Reuters has not independently verified that number. Satellite imagery shows several bombers were destroyed and badly damaged at one base.

New drone footage released by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) showed drones landing on the dome antennae of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia's fleet. There was no video showing the drones detonate.

Reuters was able to independently verify the locations of all four air bases in the footage, including Ivanovo airbase where the A-50s were stationed. Reuters could not independently verify what date the footage was filmed.

The SBU said in a statement that the aircraft struck included the A-50, the Tu-95 strategic bomber, the Tu-22M3 supersonic jet bomber, the Tu-160 strategic bomber, as well as the An-12 and Il-78 military cargo planes.

Some of those military aircraft are part of Russia's airborne nuclear deterrent, but can also be armed with cruise missiles that Russia has used to pound targets in Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"A significant part of them is irretrievably destroyed, and some damaged aircraft will take many years to rebuild," the SBU said.

The Russian Defence Ministry says Ukraine targeted airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions and were repelled in the last three locations. Several aircraft caught fire in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, it said.

Russian officials said on Wednesday that military options were "on the table" for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them.

The attack has bolstered Ukrainian morale after months of unrelenting Russian battlefield pressure and numerous powerful missile and drone strikes by Moscow's forces.

While condemning other Ukrainian attacks at the weekend on Russian targets, President Vladimir Putin made no mention of the attacks on the airbases in his comments to senior Russian officials on Wednesday.

However, influential Russian military bloggers have accused Russian authorities, especially the aerospace command, of negligence and complacency for allowing the nuclear-capable bombers to be targeted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had decorated a number of SBU officers for Sunday's operation.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Aleksandar Vasovic and Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by Gareth Jones)