(Reuters) – A third Russian air base was set ablaze by a drone strike, a day after Ukraine demonstrated what appeared to be a new ability to penetrate hundreds of kilometers into Russia with attacks on two air bases.

Officials in the Russian city of Kursk, 90 km north of the Ukrainian border, posted pictures of black smoke over an airport after the latest strike on Tuesday. The governor said that a tank for storing oil caught fire, but there were no injuries.

On Monday, Russia said it had targeted hundreds of kilometers from Ukraine with what it said were Soviet-era drones – at Engels Air Base, home to Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers, and in Ryazan, a few hours’ drive from Moscow.

Ukraine did not directly claim responsibility for the strikes, but nonetheless celebrated them.

Russian state news agencies, citing Yevgeny Shpolsky, first deputy of the Engels district administration, reported that sirens sounded late Tuesday on the territory of the airport in Engels.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reiterated his country’s determination to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs to defend itself, while saying it has not encouraged or enabled Ukrainians to strike inside Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry said three soldiers were killed in the attack on Ryazan. Although the attacks targeted military targets, it described them as terrorism and said the aim was to disable its long-range aircraft.

Ukraine has never publicly admitted responsibility for the attacks inside Russia. Asked about the strikes, Defense Minister Olesky Reznikov repeated an old joke blaming negligence with cigarettes. “Often Russians smoke in places where smoking is prohibited,” he said.

Damage to the warplanes has also caused grumbling among Russian military bloggers, whose social media posts can provide a window into the mood in Russia during the war.

Leverage and control

At least 20 oil tankers queuing off Turkey face further delays to cross from Russia’s Black Sea ports into the Mediterranean, industry sources said, as operators race to comply with new added Turkish insurance rules before a Russian oil price cap is set for the G7.

A group official said the tanker disruption was not the result of the cap on Russian oil prices agreed upon by the G7 alliance and Australia.

A price ceiling of $60 a barrel was imposed on Monday at a level higher than the current price of Urals crude from Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter.

A US Treasury official told Reuters that the G7 countries and Australia will be busy in the coming weeks setting two additional caps on prices for Russian refined oil products that are due to take effect by February 5.

“I think the point is we have all the leverage and control now that we’ve been able to cap it at $60,” the official said. He added, “Any amendments will be in the interest of the Group of Seven, it will be in the interest of Ukraine, it will be in the interest of the global economy, and it will not be in the interest of Russia.”

Zelensky with the troops

Meanwhile, on the battlefields in eastern, northeastern and southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said late Tuesday that Russian forces continued shelling towns and villages.

Six people were killed when Donetsk came under missile and artillery fire, the mayor of the Russian-installed city, Aleksandr Kolymzin, reported on his Telegram channel.

“Look what they did,” said a resident named Irina, pointing to the apartment building where her apartment was destroyed. “There are people living there. People! Where do you shoot? Go in the fields and fight each other over there, not here. How many people are actually dying.”

Dmytro Zhivitsky, governor of the Sumy region on the Russian border, said several people were injured when Russian forces fired 226 shells into seven communities during the day.

War crimes investigators are investigating the deaths of hundreds of civilians since the start of the nearly 10-month conflict. Russia denies targeting civilians during what it calls a special operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops near the front lines in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.

Addressing soldiers later at the presidential palace in Kyiv, Zelensky said he had spent the day with the troops in the Donbass, the scene of the fiercest fighting, and in the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainians recaptured swathes of territory from Russian forces.

“Thousands of Ukrainians gave their lives so that the day would come when not a single occupying soldier would remain in our land and when all our people would be free,” Zelensky, wearing his khaki green sign, told the crowd.