Drones are “here and because they're ubiquitous, because they are quite useful and they're demonstrating that every day in Ukraine,” one analyst told NBC News.

Russia’s Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, saying they damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, as well as the Murmansk region in the north. It said strikes were also repelled in the Amur region in Russia’s Far East and in the western regions of Ivanovo and Ryazan, the ministry said.

Ukraine has carried out large-scale drone strikes against several air bases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).