Ukrainian Drone Targets Russian Ballistic Missile Early Warning System Radar

JAKARTA - A Ukrainian drone targeted a Russian long-range radar deep inside the country on Sunday, the second attack in a week on infrastructure used by Moscow to monitor Ukrainian military activity, a Kyiv intelligence source said.

The source said the attack targeted the "Voronezh M" radar near the city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, about 1,500 km from the nearest area controlled by Kyiv forces.

The source, who declined to be named, did not say whether there was any damage, but the action would make it one of the deepest drone strike attempts on Russian territory, since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, reported Reuters 27 May.

A Ukrainian media outlet quoted unnamed sources as saying the drone had flown 1,800 km (1,118 miles) in Sunday's attack.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the matter, although Russia's Izvestia newspaper and other media reported that the drone had crashed in the Orenburg region on Sunday, with no civilian infrastructure affected.

The source also confirmed previous reports of a Ukrainian drone attack on the "Voronezh-DM" radar in the southern region of Krasnodar on May 22.

Meanwhile, US media outlet RFE/RL's Russian service cited satellite imagery showing damage to the Voronezh-DM radar site in the Krasnodar region.

Separately, Thord Are Iversen, an independent defense analyst and former Norwegian Navy officer, said the radar was part of Russia's ballistic missile early warning system.

The radar's main function, he told Reuters, is to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles and to determine whether Russia is under nuclear attack. The system also has secondary roles such as space tracking.

When asked why the radar was targeted, a source in Kyiv said: "They were monitoring the actions of Ukrainian security and defense forces in southern Ukraine."

It is known that, as the Russian invasion has entered its third year, Kyiv has increasingly relied on long-range drones to target Russian military and energy targets, especially oil refineries, in recent months.

Russia also hit Ukraine with long-range strikes, with its airstrikes targeting energy systems, in what it said was retaliation for Kyiv's attacks on targets in Russia.