Russian brigade that committed war crimes in Bucha hit by Ukrainian drone strike, military says
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Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) struck the training grounds and military camps of Russia's 3rd and 36th Combined Arms Armies in an overnight drone operation on May 30, USF Commander Robert "Magyar" Brovdi reported.
The attack also struck the positions of Russia's 64th Separate Motorized Rifle brigade, one of the units responsible for the massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha during the early days of the full-scale invasion.
Ukrainian drone pilots carried out a "middle strike" against Russian military positions overnight, hitting the 3rd Army "Trokhizbenka" training grounds in occupied Luhansk Oblast and 36th Army "Prymorskyi Posad" training grounds in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Brovdi said. The latter camp was also used by the 64th brigade.
The military confirmed 21 total hits (13 and 8 at each target, respectively), Brovdi said.
The attacks were carried out by the USF's "Magyar Birds" and "Raid" units, part of the newly created Deep Strike Center, at a depth of 70 kilometers (43 miles) and 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front line.
Details on Russian casualties are still under investigation, but Ukraine has thus far confirmed the losses of 31 personnel belonging to the 64th brigade. This includes nine soldiers killed, nine injured, and another 13 missing.
"Most likely, these figures are significantly underestimated," Brovdi said.
Casualties from the strike at the 3rd Army's training camp are still being confirmed.
The USF also hit a gas storage facility in Yenakiieve, occupied Donetsk Oblast, and Russian logistics in occupied Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Russia's 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade was among the units that participated in the Bucha massacre in Kyiv Oblast during the Russian occupation between February and March 2022. A suburb northwest of Kyiv, Bucha became a symbol of Russian war crimes after mass graves were uncovered in April 2022 following its liberation by Ukrainian troops.
Over 1,400 civilians were killed in the Bucha District, including 637 in Bucha itself. Many were executed, their bodies left on the streets or buried in mass graves. Among the victims were 37 children.
The overnight attack on the 64th brigade's training camp represents the latest example of Ukraine's increasingly effective middle strike campaign on Russian front-line positions. These strikes hit targets at the operational level, between 20 and 200 kilometers from the line of contact.
Ukraine's medium-range drones attack ammunition depots, fuel storage sites, and command posts, forcing the Russian military to move these assets farther from the front lines and straining Moscow's logistics.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in early May that the number of Ukrainian middle strikes has increased "signficantly."
