Ukraine’s drone strike deep inside Russian territory left Kremlin officials angry and alarmed over the sudden vulnerability of a nuclear-capable air fleet far from the battlefield, according to people close to senior officials in Moscow.

Dozens of Russian military aircraft have been destroyed in an unprecedented drone attack deep inside Russia, a Ukrainian official has said, the day before critical peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv resume in Istanbul.

When the lorry stopped close to the Belaya airfield and the wooden sheds onboard opened their roofs to release a swarm of quadcopters over the weekend, warfare changed forever.

Kyiv is hoping that being able to hit targets inside Russia will give it the strategic edge it has lacked until now.

Turkey's foreign minister will travel to Kyiv on Thursday for a two-day visit after discussing peace efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine in Moscow earlier this week, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday.

The Russian delegation at the Istanbul talks presented its demands for a ceasefire, which the Ukrainians will study over the next seven days

Among Russia's key demands is the official recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea, as well as the annexation of Ukraine's Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts, none of which Moscow controls in full.