The two sides traded strikes overnight as the Trump administration worked to hammer out the details of a partial cease-fire.
Ukraine attacked an airfield deep inside Russian territory overnight, officials said on Thursday, as the two sides traded strikes amid efforts by the Trump administration to hammer out details of a partial cease-fire.
The attack on the Russian airfield came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine spoke to President Trump and accepted the Kremlin’s offer to mutually pause attacks on energy targets for 30 days as a step toward a broader cease-fire. On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine said that they would hold meetings with U.S. officials — separately — in Saudi Arabia early next week.
Russia’s defense ministry said that it had shot down 54 Ukrainian drones in the Saratov region overnight. The region is home to the Engels airfield, which hosts some of Russia’s long-range, nuclear-capable bombers. While the ministry did not say how many drones had evaded air defenses, The New York Times confirmed that at least one strike targeted the airfield in Engels shortly after sunrise on Thursday.
Videos and photographs shared by witnesses on social media and verified by The Times showed an explosion and a large plume of dark smoke rising from the base, and loud secondary explosions after the strike. The strike appeared to target a part of the airfield with several warehouses, which is described online as a weapons storage area.
The governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said on Thursday that civilians living near the airfield were being evacuated “for safety reasons” because of a fire on the base. About 30 houses were damaged overnight, he added in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s military confirmed in a statement that it had attacked the airfield. Kyiv has previously targeted the base, which it calls a staging ground for Russia’s long-running attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.