Russian authorities revealed on Thursday that a Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at a military site suspected to be an airfield housing warplanes involved in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.
Volgograd region Governor Andrei Bocharov stated that Russian air defenses repelled a drone attack near Marinovka village, leading to a fire at a defense ministry facility without any casualties.
Eyewitness videos published by the independent Telegram news channel Astra showed thick smoke and explosions at the Marinovka airbase, with NASA observation satellites recording several fires at the base. Blogs specializing in open-source intelligence noted the presence of Su-24 and Su-34 bomber aircraft at Marinovka.
Reports from Russia’s investigative news outlet, iStories, suggested that Su-34s from Marinovka had been used to bomb Ukrainian targets in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region. Consequently, the Volgograd International Airport temporarily halted all flights on Thursday.