- Ukrainian Drone Strike Destroys Russian Bomber
- Details of the Drone Attack and Russian Response
- Implications of the Attack on Moscow’s Military Capability
According to reports, a Russian flagship long-range bomber was obliterated by a Ukrainian drone strike.
According to Moscow, a drone was struck by small arms fire but still managed to “damage” an aircraft. Ukraine has remained silent.
Russia has widely attacked Ukrainian cities with the Tu-22, which can fly twice the speed of sound.
A “copter-type UAV” attacked Saturday at 10:00 Moscow time (08:00 BST), according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Soltsy-2’s location was described as “a military airfield in the Novgorod region” in the report.
The ministry stated, “The UAV was detected by the airfield’s observation post and engaged with small arms fire.”
The nefarious act destroyed one aircraft, but no casualties.
According to the statement, a fire that broke out in the airfield parking lot was swiftly extinguished.
Images published on the social media platform Telegram, however, depicted a large fire engulfing an aircraft with the distinctive Tu-22 nose cone.
While the loss of a single aircraft will have little impact on the effectiveness of Moscow’s 60-strong fleet, this operation demonstrates Kyiv’s increasing capacity to strike deep within Russian territory.
In recent months, Kyiv has launched dozens of unmanned fixed-wing aircraft to attack Moscow, a journey of several hundred miles. Soltsy-2 is roughly 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the Ukrainian frontier.
However, the Russian Ministry of Defense’s description of the drone as a “copter-type UAV” implies a low-cost, commercially available, short-range device.
The NATO-designated “Backfire” Tu-22 swing-wing supersonic bomber has been used to strike Ukrainian cities.
Modern variants, such as the Tu-22M3, are capable of Mach 2 speeds (2,300km/h or 1,430mph) and can carry up to 24,000kg of armaments, such as “dumb bombs” and homing missiles.
They have been employed in Syria, Chechnya, and Georgia conflicts, and most recently in Ukraine.
According to prosecutors in Kyiv, 30 persons were killed in January when a Tu-22-launched missile struck an apartment complex in Dnipro.
The assault was attributed to the 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment. The regiment has its headquarters in Soltsy-2.
BBC Verify corroborated the location of the Ukrainian drone attack on Soltsy-2 by comparing visual clues, including the appearance of aircraft and bays, with historical satellite images of the airbase.
The images and other witness photos of the incident matched the rainy, overcast weather.
The aircraft wreckage visible in the video is consistent with that of a Tu-22M3.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s defense intelligence service reported on Monday that another military aircraft was damaged in a drone attack in the Russian region of Kaluga.
The Russian media also reported the attack but denied that any damage had occurred.
