– We see a Ukrainian attack drone of the type A-22 Foxbat. The attack drone is a microplane produced in Ukraine, says Nils Håheim-Saers. He is a specialist in drones at the research institute Norce, and has studied the footage from the Kola Peninsula this week where a drone is shot down. For many days there was speculation about what actually happened near Norway. On Monday, the airspace was abruptly closed over the Kola Peninsula, at the same time rumors circulated on social media about Ukrainian drone attacks. Russian authorities were completely silent. Only on Wednesday did they break their silence. By then, a film recording from the Olenja military air base had already been spread on social media. Ukraine has adopted the small aircraft A-22 Foxbat as an attack drone against targets deep inside Russia. This week, these have probably been used against the Olenja airbase on the Kola Peninsula. Photo: Aeroprakt Ukrainian attack Researcher Kristian Åtland at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI) also believes that it is an unmanned small aircraft of the A-22 Foxbat type that was shot down. – Such drones have on several occasions been used in attacks against targets deep inside Russian territory. In practice, the entire European part of Russia is within the range of such weapons, he says. He believes the drone has been sent from Chernihiv county, in the far north of Ukraine. That means a distance of up to 1,800 kilometers. May have taken off in Russia International media have also previously written about the small aircraft Ukraine has put into use as a drone. In April, a similar small plane was filmed hitting a target in Russian Tartastan, the Kyiv Post wrote. Also over 1,000 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. In April, an unmanned small aircraft was used to bomb what is claimed to be a Russian drone factory in the county of Tartastan. Photo: YAROTROF/X According to official information, the drone has a range of up to 1,200 kilometers. How it could then have flown all the way from Ukraine to Kola is an unanswered question. Håheim-Saers says it may well be that it has a longer range, but that it is secret information. It may also have been sent up from Russian soil. – It is entirely possible that this is what we call “operations in the deep”. That you have simply taken a microplane or attack drone apart, put it in a trailer in the back of a car or in a small truck, driven into Russia, found the place where you want to fly from, and assembled the plane, charged it up, fueled and sent off. Nils Håheim-Saers is a specialist in drones, and is certain that it was an unmanned small aircraft that was shot down at the Olenja base on the Kola Peninsula. Photo: Hans-Ludvig Andreassen / news Attacks on air bases The attack on the Olenja base at Kola is not unique. Last night on Thursday, Ukrainian drones attacked targets at the Marinovka military airbase in Volgograd Oblast. This was reported by the Ukrainian newspaper Pravda and the news agency Reuters. Volgograd is admittedly significantly closer to Ukraine than the Olenja base in the north. Also in July, there was probably a drone attack against the airbase on the Kola Peninsula. Ukrainian authorities claimed that they managed to destroy bombers, but on the Russian side it was completely silent. – It is probably too late for the Russian defense authorities to admit that they do not have control over Russia’s own airspace and that the country is vulnerable to this type of attack from the Ukrainian side, says researcher Åtland. Lars Peder Haga, researcher at the Air Force Academy, says it has become a policy for the Russian authorities to withhold information. – As long as you can get away with it, you don’t notify the population. – What do you think is the reason why they chose this time to announce that they are under attack? – It may be that it simply started to emerge on social media that an attack is taking place here. Kristian Åtland believes there is no reason to believe that the attack on Kola was the last. Photo: Privat The planes attack Ukraine And there will probably be new attacks against the air base on the Kola Peninsula from the Ukrainian side. – The intention is obviously to hit some of the bases Russian aircraft, which bomb targets in Ukraine, operate from, and of which there are several on Kola, says researcher Sverre Diesen at FFI. Researcher and former chief of defense Sverre Diesen believes that drone attacks against airports on the Kola are both militarily natural and within international law. Photo: Svein Olsson / news The researchers Haga and Åtland also point to the fact that the base is very important for Russia’s war against Ukraine, because it is here that they have a significant part of their long-range bombers that are used in the attack on Ukraine. – These regularly carry out raids towards targets in Ukraine, says Åtland. Sverre Diesen doubts that Russia itself would have staged the drone attack to stimulate recruitment for the war in Ukraine. – This is because the Russians still manage to recruit enough volunteers by offering both one-off bonuses and salaries far above what young Russians can expect to earn in other contexts. Especially in other parts of Russia, where the standard of living is lower. Published 24/08/2024, at 17.42
ttn-69
Ukraine used microplanes to bomb Russian targets near Norway – news Troms and Finnmark
