Remotely piloted light aircraft, modified to carry and drop bombs, were used.
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The Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out an air strike on the Russian region of Leningrad using light aircraft equipped with conventional bombs, a method that had not been registered in that area since the Second World War.
The operation was carried out during the night of March 24 by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in coordination with the Unmanned Systems Forces, the Special Operations Forces and the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR).
Remotely piloted light aircraft, apparently A-22 Foxbat platforms, were reportedly used, modified to carry and drop FAB-250 bombs of Soviet origin.
This type of attack represents a significant fact, since the use of conventional aerial bombing in that region, that is, the dropping of bombs from aircraft on specific targets, has not been seen since the end of the Nazi siege of Leningrad in 1944.
The Ukrainian plane.
One of the targets hit was the icebreaker combat ship “Purga”, which was docked at the Vyborg shipyard. This vessel, designed for the Russian FSB coast guard and with operational capabilities in arctic areas, was hit by one of the bombs dropped from
these aircraft.
In addition to the attack on the ship, other similar aircraft would have been used to hit critical infrastructure, targets that could not be destroyed with smaller drones.
The use of A-22 Foxbat aircraft, which visually resemble fumigation planes but without a pilot, also marks an innovation on the battlefield.
These aircraft were adapted to operate remotely and perform functions that combine drone characteristics with carrying capabilities typical of manned aircraft.
The Russian ship attacked.
The closest historical precedent to this type of attack in the region dates back to the siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1944, during World War II, when the city was subjected to intense bombing as part of the siege imposed by Axis forces. Since then, there had been no recorded conventional aerial bombing in that area
.
This attack is in addition to other recent Ukrainian operations inside Russian territory. On March 24, according to the Russian media Astra, a long-range drone attack caused damage to the Saratov oil refinery
.
Among the affected targets were a refining unit and a diesel storage tank with a capacity of 10,000 tons, which generated a fire and forced a temporary suspension of operations at the plant.
