Kyiv: Ukraine attacks Russian radar from record distance

A Ukrainian drone has struck a radar system in Russia’s Orenburg region, more than 1,770 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, making it the longest-range drone strike on a Russian target so far in the war.

The Ukrainian drone attacked a Russian Voronezh-M early warning radar in the city of Orsk in Orenburg. The radars enable long-distance monitoring of aircraft and ballistic missiles and are crucial to Russia’s missile defense strategy.

“A Ukrainian drone has covered a distance of more than 1,800 kilometers from the enemy facility, setting a record for the range of destruction of kamikaze drones,” a source in the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Service (DIU) told the Ukrainska Pravda news agency on Monday, adding that the outcome of the attack was still being assessed.

“Yes, we can confirm this information,” a source in Ukrainian military intelligence told Ukrinform.

Newsweek The Russian Defense Ministry asked for comment via email.

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have played a crucial role in the war. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation in Education, Science and Technology and Minister of Digital Transformation, has been leading Ukraine’s drone program since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Before this latest attack, Kyiv intelligence sources said on May 9 that Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Russian Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, nearly 1,600 kilometers from the border.

It was the first drone attack on the Republic during the war.

“According to Ukrainska Pravda’s source, it was a (security service) drone that set a record by flying a distance of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles),” the publication reported.

In April, the Ukrainian security service also said it was behind a drone attack on a Russian oil refinery in the Republic of Tatarstan, about 1,300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

On Sunday, drones were spotted over the Orenburg region. Local media reported that one drone crashed 30 kilometers from Orsk.

An earlier Ukrainian drone strike on May 23 in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar damaged a radar station housing two Voronezh systems, the Russian service of the US-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.

At the time, Norwegian military analyst Thord Are Iversen said on X, formerly Twitter: “An attack on this type of target is not a particularly good idea.”

“It is in everyone’s interest that Russia’s ballistic missile warning system works well, especially in times of tension,” he wrote. “Then one must convince the West, especially the White House, to lift restrictions on attacks on Russia itself.”

“There are a number of targets in Russia that can be attacked with drones. Only a handful of them should be avoided, and this was one of those targets,” he added.

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