The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, said a day after the strike that 41 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Other assessments, however, including one by BBC News Ukraine, tallied a more modest number, upward of 11 destroyed jets.

Russia’s Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, saying they damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, 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 drone strikes on Russian air force bases weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war on its neighbor and undermine its capacity to threaten more distant rivals.

Ukraine has carried out large-scale drone strikes against four airbases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, according to a source in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).

(Reuters) -Two bridges collapsed in different Russian regions bordering Ukraine, derailing trains and killing at least seven people and injuring dozens, Russian authorities said early on Sunday, while a Russian politician called Kyiv a "terrorist enclave".