What is known about the drone attack on the Pskov airport, where Ukraine destroyed iconic Russian IL-76 aircraft

Ukraine launched its biggest drone strike on targets on Russian soil since the start of the war in February 2022 on Tuesday night. One of the biggest targets was an airport located near the Estonian and Latvian borders.

In a first reaction, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharovadescribed the action as “terrorist” and said that it will not go unpunished.

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”Ukrainian drone strikes against civilian targets once again confirm the terrorist essence of the kyiv regime. These actions (…) will not go unpunished”manifested Zakharova.

The official He denounced that the Ukrainian drones had not reached their target without data provided by Western satellites.

This is what is known about the massive Ukrainian attack:

about twenty of ukrainian drones hit the airport in the western Russian region of pskovnear the border with Estonia and Latviaand caused damage to four military transport aircraft Ilyushin-76 (IL-76)Russian state news agency Tass first reported.

For its part, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said two military transport planes IL-76 caught fire in pskov.

“On Tuesday, August 29, around 11:28 p.m., it was reported that in the city of pskov military transport planes caught fire IL-76. To put out the fire, 65 firefighters and 21 vehicles were mobilized,” the statement said.

Firefighters work after registering explosions at the Pskov airport, Russia. (Photo: EFE/EPA/GOVERNOR OF THE PSKOV REGION).

But later the Russian media reported that up to six aircraft were damaged or destroyed in the attackamong them a Tu-22 bomber.

local authorities all flights canceled at the airport pskov until the status of the takeoff runway is known.

The city of pskov It is located 700 kilometers from the border with Ukrainea distance that makes Russian analysts and bloggers doubt that the drones could have flown from so far.

Drone attack in Pskov. (AFP).

The EFE agency recalls that until now, only once had Ukrainian drones reached so far into the Russian rear, when on August 19 they hit an airfield in the region of Novgorod900 kilometers from the border and about 200 kilometers further north than pskov.

But that was not the only target of Ukrainian drones. There were also attacks on Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga, Ryazan, Ruza and the region of Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry said that most of these aircraft were shot down.

An IL-76 aircraft.

transport planes Ilyushin-76 destroyed belonged to the 334th Military Transport Regiment, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.

The first Ilyushin Il-76 was produced more than 50 years ago. It is a heavy and long-range aircraft., with high wing and four turbojet engines (1960s-era D-30KP or PS-90A-76 originally developed in the 1980s) installed in underwing nacelles, with a large vertical tail rudder and rear elevators at the top of the rudder. It has a rear gate that is used for the entry of military trucks and large containers, according to LaRazon.es.

The crew is up to seven people. It can also carry 128 paratroopers.

It is designed to carry out airlift and drop missions with a variety of payloads, including infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

The aircraft was developed by the manufacturer Ilyushin in the 1967 year. On March 25, 1971, the first IL-76 took off from Moscow.

The ship measures 46.6 meters long, 14.76 meters tall and has a wingspan of 50.5 meters.

It is capable of transporting a load of 40 tons over a distance of 5,000 km in less than six hours. More than 900 aircraft of this type were manufactured, many of them for civil use for the transport of commercial cargo.

According to Sputniknews, its current manufacturers are the companies Aviastar-SP from the Russian city of Ulyanovsk and the Tashkent Aviation Production Association, in Uzbekistan. According to estimates by the Russian media, the modernized variant of the aircraft Il-76MD-90A sells for about 65 million of dollars.

The aircraft has been sold to more than 20 countries around the world, from Europe and Asia to Africa, and even some to the United States.

In the context of the war in Ukraine, Russia uses them to transport troops.

Even at the beginning of the war, Ukraine reported the downing of an IL-76 south of kyiv with about a hundred Russian paratroopers.

Source: Elcomercio