KYIV/ MOSCOW — A drone strike hit a third Russian airfield on Tuesday, one day after Ukraine was accused of targeting two military bases deep into Russian territory.

The latest attack was confirmed by officials in the southern Russian city of Kursk, around 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The regional governor said the strike had ignited an oil storage tank, but there were no casualties.

Images released by Russian media showed black smoke rising from the airfield in the early morning hours of Tuesday.

Two strikes on Monday hit the Engels air base, which hosts Russia’s fleet of giant strategic bombers, and in Ryazan, where Russian authorities said three service personnel died.

Russian President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of his Security Council on Tuesday to discuss issues related to “internal security”, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Moscow says the strikes were conducted using Soviet-era drones. Kyiv has not directly claimed responsibility for the strikes but has celebrated them.

The New York Times, citing a senior Ukrainian official, said the drones involved in Monday’s attacks were launched from Ukrainian territory, and at least one of the strikes was made with the help of special forces close to the base.

In response, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have struck Ukraine’s military command system on Monday with a massive high-precision strike.

“If Russia assesses the incidents were deliberate attacks, it will probably consider them as some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine,” the UK Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov has also said that Moscow’s military stocks are coming to an end, though he added that the country has enough high-precision missiles to conduct several more big air strikes on Ukraine before it runs out.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have warned that emergency blackouts will once again take place in several regions on Tuesday following the latest trikes.

At least four people were killed on Monday as Russian rockets hit several cities, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “In many regions, there will have to be emergency blackouts. We will be doing everything to restore stability.”

Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said power generators and substations in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Odesa in the south had suffered the worst damage.

About half the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital will remain without electricity for the coming days, according to the Kyiv regional governor.

Ukraine’s air force command claims to have shot down more than 60 of over 70 missiles launched by Russia on Monday.

The strikes targeted once again Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, threatening to leave the country in the dark on one of the coldest days of the year so far.

”Air defenses shot down most of the rockets, and energy workers have already started to restore electricity,” Zelensky said.

Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians but said their suffering would not end unless Kyiv yielded to Russia’s demands.

On Tuesday, Zelensky visited Sloviansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Armed Forces Day to salute his country’s military from the “bottom of his heart”.

“We always start by remembering our fallen heroes, all those who gave their lives to Ukraine,” he said, according to video on social media. Unlike Putin, Zelensky has visited the frontline many times since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Sloviansk is also located 45 kilometers from Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for several weeks.

In another development, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has accused Kyiv of “nuclear terrorism,” saying that Ukraine was continuing to shell the Zaporizhzhia power plant

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly blamed each other for shelling near the plant, which has raised concerns of a possible nuclear catastrophe.

On Tuesday, Shoigu said that Ukraine had fired 33 large-caliber shells at the plant in the last two weeks. He claimed that most were intercepted by Russian air defenses, but added that “some still hit objects that affect the safe operation of the nuclear power plant.”

The minister said that Russian forces were taking “all measures” to ensure the safety of the power plant in the face of Kyiv’s alleged attacks, which Moscow sees as “nuclear terrorism.”

Ukraine denies targeting the facility, which has been under the control of Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion.

Local Ukrainian officials have said that Russia shelled towns overnight near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, leaving more than 9,000 homes without running water.

Kyiv has also accused Moscow of using the plant as a de facto weapons depot.

The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency is pushing to create a security zone around the plant, but the idea has yet to be implemented.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday there were “positive dynamics” in discussions with the IAEA on the idea, according to the TASS state news agency.

Also, Russia and Ukraine reported on Tuesday they had exchanged 60 prisoners of war in the latest of a series of such swaps.

Russia’s defense ministry said the 60 freed Russian soldiers would be flown to Moscow to receive medical care and psychological support.

Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak also hailed the returning Ukrainians as heroes and said they included dozens who had held out in the city of Mariupol — including the besieged Azovstal steelworks — until Russia forced its surrender in May.

“We continue to return the defenders of Mariupol - in today’s ‘list of 60’ there are 34 of them, including 14 from Azovstal,” Yermak said.

“Some are wounded, and will receive all the necessary help in Ukraine,” he added.

Some of those released had been held on Russian territory and others in Olenivka, a prisoner-of-war camp in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine, Yermak said.

The two sides have exchanged hundreds of prisoners in a series of swaps over the past several months.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine have released official figures on how many prisoners of war they have taken since the invasion began exactly nine months ago.

Ukraine’s president Zelensky said last week that Russia had freed 1,319 prisoners since March.

Latvia, meanwhile, has revoked the license of Russia’s most prominent independent television channel, Dozhd (TV Rain).

The Latvian broadcasting regulator on Monday accused TV Rain of supporting Russia’s military in Ukraine and of being a threat to national security and public order.

The decision followed the unscripted comments by a presenter saying they hoped the station’s efforts would help provide Russian troops with basic equipment and amenities.

The journalist has since been fired and TV Rain apologized to its viewers, but the remarks led Latvia’s State Security Service to launch an investigation.

TV Rain was forced to broadcast from Latvia and other countries abroad in July after being kicked out of Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The station was then banned by the Kremlin entirely for spreading so-called “fake news” about Russia’s army or its entities abroad.

But the station has recently been courting controversy in Latvia too, receiving a €10,000 fine for displaying a map of Russia which included the occupied territory of Crimea, and calling Moscow troops in Ukraine “our army.”

According to Latvian law, TV channels can lose their license if they commit offenses three times in one year. — Euronews