Security Services Thwart Ukrainian Drone Attack on Airfield Hosting Russian AEW&C Aircraft

Russia has faced a succession of Ukrainian drone attacks over the past year, with unmanned aerial vehicles targeting everything from nuclear power plants and bases hosting Russia's strategic aviation to the Kremlin. Moscow suspects Kiev's Western patrons of direct involvement in the planning and carrying out of some of these attacks.

Russia's Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs jointly thwarted an attempted Ukrainian drone attack on an airfield in Ivanovo Region, authorities have announced.

"[The services] thwarted an attempt to carry out a sabotage and terrorist act planned by Ukrainian military intelligence at the Severny military airfield in Ivanovo Region using drones stuffed with explosives," the Federal Security Service (Russian acronym FSB) said in a press statement Sunday.

According to the FSB, the drones were supposed to target Russian Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft stationed at the base.

The sabotage attempt was thwarted thanks to the timely detention of the sabotage group tasked with carrying out the attack.

Improvised explosive devices to be used in the attack were to to be transferred across the border between Ukraine and Russia aboard an Aeroprakt-A 32 ultralight aircraft flying out of a village in Chernigov Region in northern Ukraine. The plane's pilot and members of the sabotage group were detained after landing in the Russian region of Tula while transferring weapons.

An investigation has been launched, and a manhunt is underway to find more members of the sabotage group.

The attempted attack on a base containing A-50s was to have been the second major Ukrainian operation targeting Russian strategic aircraft since the December 5 drone strikes on airfields in Ryazan and Saratov hosting Russian long-range strategic aviation, including Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers. Those attacks - carried out by upgraded and modified Soviet-designed Tupolev Tu-141 rocket drones, were thwarted after Russian air defenses intercepted and shot down the projectiles.

Russia has faced a deluge of Ukrainian drone attacks and terrorist bombings over the past year, with saboteurs and agents carrying out killings, attempting to sabotage Russian military and civilian infrastructure, and launching strikes aimed at prestige targets - such as the Kremlin. On Saturday, Russian author and Donbass volunteer Zakhar Prilepin was targeted for assassination in a car bombing attack which killed his driver and injured Prilepin.

The Beriev A-50 is Russia's workhorse flying radar reconnaissance aircraft, and plays a crucial role in ensuring the effectiveness of Russia's military intelligence-gathering capabilities. The plane's deeply modernized A-50U variant is capable of tracking up to 300 ground targets simultaneously at ranges up to 300 km away, and tracking up to 40 aerial targets simultaneously at distances up to 650 km away thanks to its Sheml-M ('lit. 'Bumblebee-M') mushroom dome-shaped radar tracking system. The radar complex has a missile launch detection range of up to 1,000 km. The base A-50 is a modification of the Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport jet, and was first introduced into service with the Soviet military in the mid-1980s.