Ukrainian drone attacks hit air bases in Russia. That’s what it means.

An explosion hits an air base inside Russia On Tuesday, the latest in a series of appearances Ukrainian drone attacks Shows the ability to strike at the very heart of the Russian lands and inspires new boldness in Battle of Kyiv against Moscow war.

An airport in Kursk in southwestern Russia, near the Ukrainian border, caught fire on Tuesday morning, with the region’s governor Roman Starovoit saying the crash was the result of a drone attack.

Images and video verified by NBC News showed a huge fire at the airport caused by a suspected damaged oil tanker, with smoke stretching for miles across the sky.

Similar explosions were seen on Monday at Engels Air Force Base outside the city of Saratov and in Ryazan, 125 miles southwest of Moscow and hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border.

The Russian Strategic Bombing Fleet of Tu-160 and Tu-95 aircraft is home to the base at Engels, which have been used on long-range bombing missions to Ukraine and can be adapted to carry nuclear weapons.

Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility, but officials have jokingly indicated that its military may have been behind the incidents. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Kyiv forces for the two blasts, in which it said three “maintenance personnel” were killed and two aircraft damaged.

Analysts were cautious about the military impact of the attacks, apparently on strategic locations far from the front lines, but said they undermined Russia’s confidence in the country’s air defenses while providing a timely morale boost to Ukrainian civilians preparing for a long winter under bombardment.

Matthew Ford, assistant professor at the Swedish Defense University in Stockholm, told NBC News.

“It is important from a moral point of view that some of Russia’s strategic resources are targeted.”

He added that Russia has the firepower to continue bombing Ukraine. “It may be painful, but they can move planes and infrastructure, and they can enforce more security around air bases.”

The Kremlin said the attacks were carried out by “Soviet-made drones,” or drones. This suggests that Ukraine is not using the billions of dollars in lethal aid it has received from the United States and other Western allies in attacks on Russian soil, which Washington fears could lead to an escalation.