Overnight into 18 October, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) attacked a field camp of the Russian military with one-way attack drones near the village of Postolye Dvory in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, not far from the Khalino military airfield, Liga reports referring to its SBU source.
Explosions were captured on video by an unknown author. The footage shows nine flashes. It is unclear whether the video was shot continuously, and whether it shows impacts, anti-air missile launches, or drone interceptions.
According to intelligence, the camp housed up to 3,000 troops from the Russian army and about 80 units of military equipment, Liga says.
The Liga source noted that the Russian losses from the attack are still being clarified, adding,
“It’s evident that the strikes were powerful, with at least 18 hits by SBU drones on the camp.”
The Russian authorities claimed that “all drones were shot down” and “there were no losses.”
The Khaliino airfield, named after the nearby village of the same name, is located 7 km east of the center of Russia’s Kursk City and about 100 km from the Ukrainian border. It is home to the Russian Airspace Force’s 14th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, equipped with Su-30SM aircraft. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has been closed to civilian flights and is used as a base for Russian fighter jets.
This is not the first time Khalino military facilities have been hit: the airfield was first hit in 2022. On 27 August 2023, the Ukraine Security Service’s drones targeted the air base, damaging four Su-30s and one MiG-29 on the airfield, S-300 anti-air radars, and two Pantsir SHORAD systems. On 24 September, a Ukrainian drone “safely force-landed” on the runway exploded at the airfield, inflicting casualties on the leadership of a Russian aviation regiment.
On 17 October, Ukraine used the US-supplied ATACMS missiles for the first time to attack airfields in occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk, used by Russia as helicopter bases.
Read also:
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