Ukraine conducted a large-scale drone attack against Russian territory on the night of 5 July, targeting multiple military installations across several regions. Russian authorities reported intercepting and destroying 94 Ukrainian drones, while acknowledging strikes on strategic military facilities.
Borisoglebsk: Where Russia trains its fighter pilots
The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed what NASA satellites had already detected—fires burning at Russia’s Borisoglebsk airfield in Voronezh Oblast.
Why target this particular base? It houses Su-34 fighter-bombers, Su-35S air superiority fighters, and Su-30SM multirole aircraft used to attack Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
The attack resulted in damage to a warehouse containing guided aerial bombs and at least one training combat aircraft, with the General Staff noting that “possibly other aircraft” were also hit.
Regional governor Alexander Gusev acknowledged that security forces detected and destroyed “more than 25 drones” across four districts, while Russia’s Defense Ministry later claimed 34 drones were shot down in the region.
This marks the second major Ukrainian attack on the Borisoglebsk facility this year. Previous strikes in June resulted in the deaths of two Russian servicemen, though regional authorities initially concealed both the attack and the casualties.
Cheboksary: Hitting Russia’s drone defenses
Ukrainian forces struck the VNIIR-Progress facility in Cheboksary, the capital of Russia’s Chuvash Republic, marking the second attack on this strategic defense manufacturer since June.
The head of Chuvashia confirmed the strike, stating that production at the facility “has not been operating since the previous attack in June.”
The VNIIR-Progress plant produces critical military equipment, including “Komet” antennas designed to protect Russian drones from Ukrainian electronic warfare systems, according to Russian Telegram channel Astra. The facility also manufactures navigation equipment for missiles including the Iskander-M and Kalibr systems, as well as components for submarines.
Eyewitness footage showed police blocking access to both the industrial facility and a nearby shopping center following the attack.
A separate fire broke out at the Vutherm water heating boiler factory, located approximately four kilometers from the VNIIR-Progress plant, though the connection between the incidents remains unclear.
Additional strikes across Russian territory
The drone offensive extended to the Saratov region, where governor Roman Busargin reported damage to residential buildings in both Engels and Saratov. However, the Telegram channel Astra, citing local sources, indicated that explosions occurred “in the area of a military airfield,” suggesting the primary targets were military rather than civilian infrastructure.
Social media footage captured fires at various industrial facilities, indicating the scope of the Ukrainian operation extended beyond the officially acknowledged targets.