Footage of a burning Il-76 military transport aircraft in Pskov
Russia has claimed to have killed “up to 50” special forces Ukrainian soldiers and “four high-speed military boats” using just one military aircraft.
The claim, for which no evidence has been provided, was published by the Russian Ministry of Defence at 3am Moscow time (12am GMT) as dozens of Ukrainian drones hit mainland Russia.
Those within Russia’s military blogger community, over which Vladimir Putin is attempting to regain control in the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny, hinted at the fabrication of the MoD’s claims.
Some said they were waiting for “information to be confirmed”, insinuating such a prospect was unlikely, while others pointed to the convenient timing of the claim as suggestive of its fabrication.
Footage had already begun circling of a huge fire raging through the city of Pskov, roughly 25 miles west of Estonia, after Ukrainian drones, reported minutes before midnight, damaged four Il-76 transport aircraft at the nearby airfield.
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Beyond Pskov, Ukrainian drones were also shot down over Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga and the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital.
The Russian MoD covered each attack bar the Pskov incident, which appeared to be the most destructive. Footage of the incident was published by local media outlets and the governor of the affected region.
In all, the MoD began posting about the drone attacks at 11.53pm GMT. Five near identical posts were issued within the space of two and a half hours; each one said the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle strikes had been “thwarted”.
Wedged in between those reports, they claimed they had also killed 50 special forces Ukrainian fighters in the Black Sea.
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The statement read: “On August 30, at about 00.00 Moscow time, a naval aviation aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet in the Black Sea destroyed four high-speed military boats with landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people.”
They provided no evidence and Express.co.uk is yet to see any visual or official confirmation of this attack.
The claim was reposted by many of the smaller Russian milbloggers in the community, run by either one person or a small team, but was ignored by the larger channels.
A number of the milbloggers also expressed scepticism of the claims, refraining from outright denying it but equally declining to accept its truth at face value.
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One wrote sarcastically: “The Ministry of Defense announced four boats killed by ONE aircraft. I’ll find out the details, and if this information is confirmed, it definitely draws on a sticker.”
Another wrote: “The Ministry of Defense decided to interrupt the negative of Pskov with a statement that two hours ago, four high-speed boats of the MTR of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a landing force on board were destroyed by the aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet in the Black Sea.
“The number of those killed, as usual, is in the dozens. We hope, like last time, the press service will show footage of objective control in order to fix the result not only in words.”
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