Putin humiliated on birthday as Ukraine suicide drones blow up key facility

Vladimir Putin has been humiliated on his birthday by a long-distance drone attack which has hit Russia from 1,200 miles away.

Ukrainiansuicide drones targeted the city of Tyumen deep in Siberia forcing a major emergency services operation. Three drones were reportedly shot down over an “industrial facility” with images showing burnt out debris at the scene while locals also told of hearing explosions and seeing fire engines.

At the same time Russia launched missiles at Ukraine to mark Putin's 73rd birthday on October 7. Ukraine said Iskander missiles and at least 152 strike drones were aimed at Ukraine. Two missiles and 52 strike drones broke through air defences.

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This drone attack is among the longest in the war with another previous strike measuring 1,100 miles in August. But at the same time there was also an attack on the Belaya Air Base in eastern Siberia on June 1 which formed part of Kyiv’s ‘Operation Spiderweb’, and that was a distance of 2,700 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Despite the images from the scene, Russian authorities are playing down the damage caused by the drone attack last night. Local media outlet Tyumen Oblast said that three drones were shot down and there was no fire at the unspecified industrial facility and it missed the Antipinsky oil refinery.

Russia also claimed to have downed almost 200 Ukrainian drones with some targeting the Krasnodar region where Putin has lavish palace residences, with Sochi airport closed.

Dzerzhinsk in Nizhny Novgorod region was again targeted where 24 hours earlier Ukraine hit one of the largest Russian manufacturers of explosives, detonators, munitions components, including aviation bombs, artillery shells, and warheads for missiles. And there were reports of Ukrainian strikes on Moscow and Kursk region as well as Stary Oskol in Belgorod region. 

it comes as Donald Trump hinted he will supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine but wants assurances of the targets they will be used to hit - defying a warning from Putin that such a move would wreck their relationship.

“Yes, I sort of made a decision, pretty much,” he told reporters of the missiles which could conformably reach Moscow and St Petersburg. “I think I want to find out what they are doing with them, where they are sending them, I guess I have to ask that question…..” But he stressed: “I am not looking to see escalation.”

Putin had earlier said such a move “will lead to the destruction of our relations, at least the positive trends that had begun in these relations. So I say what I think. And how things will turn out depends not only on us and not only on me.”