Moscow said Monday it had foiled a new Ukrainian drone attack on a strategic bomber military base hundreds of kilometers from their joint border, as Ukraine called for Russia's ouster from the United Nations.

Russia's Defense Ministry announced that it downed a Ukrainian drone at its Engels airfield in the southern Saratov region located more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

It was the second attack on the Engels airfield in less than a month. Three servicemen were killed by falling debris, regional authorities confirmed.

⚡️Footage of air defense work over the Engels airfield last night. pic.twitter.com/dHO3C75BVS

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) December 26, 2022

In early December, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian drone attacks caused explosions at two airfields including Engels, leaving three dead. The airfields were targeted with Soviet-made drones, the Ministry said at the time.

Separately, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed it had killed a group of armed saboteurs from Ukraine that attempted to cross into the Bryansk region carrying "improvised explosive devices."

On its part, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urged the exclusion of Russia -- a permanent member of the UN Security Council -- from the world body.

"Ukraine calls on the member states of the UN... to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole," the Ministry said in a statement. 

"We have a very simple question: Does Russia have the right to remain a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to be in the United Nations at all?" Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Sunday.

"We have a convincing and reasoned answer -- no, it does not," he claimed.

The five permanent members of the 15-seat Security Council have veto power that can block any resolution.

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