海角大神

A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia鈥檚 territory, Ukraine's Security Service said on Sunday, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones just hours before a聽

A military official, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the far-reaching attack took more than a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The military source said it was an 鈥渆xtremely complex鈥� operation, involving the smuggling of first-person view, or FPV, drones to Russia, where they were then placed in mobile wooden houses.

鈥淟ater, drones were hidden under the roofs of these houses while already placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were remotely opened, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,鈥� the source said.

Social media footage shared by Russian media appeared to show the drones rising from inside containers while other panels lay discarded on the road. One clip appeared to show men climbing onto a truck in an attempt to halt the drones.

The drones hit 41 planes stationed at military airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said. Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and guided missiles.

The Security Service of Ukraine said that the operation, which it codenamed 鈥淲eb鈥�, had destroyed 34% of Russia's fleet of air missile carriers with damages estimated at $7 billion. The claim could not be independently verified.

Russia's Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, which damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Ukraine, as well as the Murmansk region in the north, it said. Strikes were also repelled in the Amur region in Russia's Far East and in the western regions of Ivanovo and Ryazan, the ministry said.

The attack came the same day as Zelenskyy said Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday.

In a statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy said that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. 鈥淲e are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,鈥� Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised聽聽on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.

Also on Sunday, Russia's top investigative body said that explosions had caused聽聽and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, killing seven in one of the incidents and injuring dozens more. Russian officials, however, did not say what had caused the blasts and the word 鈥渆xplosions鈥� was later removed from an Investigative Committee press release.

Russian strike hits an army unit

Russia on Sunday launched the biggest number of drones 鈥� 472 鈥� on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine鈥檚 air force said.

Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the air force. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine鈥檚 army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit.

The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m., the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time.

Ukrainian army commander Mykhailo Drapatyi later Sunday submitted his resignation following the attack. He was a respected commander whose leadership saw Ukraine regain land on the eastern front for the first time since Kyiv's 2022 counteroffensive.

The training unit was located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike. Ukraine鈥檚 forces lack troops and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.

Northern pressure

Russia鈥檚 Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine鈥檚 northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area.

Speaking Saturday, Ukraine鈥檚 top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.聽