Ukrainian military intelligence drones attacked Engels Air Base, home to strategic bombers, on Wednesday morning, and Kyiv is assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.
The air base is located near the city of Saratov, approximately 730 km southeast of Moscow.
The governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said that the Ukrainian drones were shot down near the city of Engels, but did not report any damage.
“The air defense system worked in a timely and efficient manner. There are no victims, there is no infrastructure,” a Russian official wrote on Telegram, reports The Moscow Times.
The Ministry of Defense of Russia reported that four drones were shot down over the city of Engels.
Residents told the Russian Shot channel that on Wednesday morning there were explosions that “shook the windows.”
Yesterday evening, several explosions occurred in Engels, a city in the Saratov region of Russia, known for having Russian bombers at the airfield.
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Engels Air Force Base was attacked twice in 2022
At the end of 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the Engels Air Base twice. The target strike was that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, strategic bombers were taking off from there to strike critical infrastructure of Ukraine.
Despite the fact that the airbase is more than 700 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border, Tu-141 Strizh drones managed to attack it, an independent Russian publication notes.
The second attack, according to Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Zolkin, damaged five Tu-95MS bombers and a control tower. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not confirm this information, but reported three dead servicemen.
After these attacks, Moscow transferred part of its strategic bombers from Engels Airfield, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said at the time.
“Of course, there are still a certain number of aircraft there, but many of them have already been redeployed to different airfields that can receive them, maintain and repair them,” Ignat said.
From 4 to 6 Tu-95 strategic bombers were sent to the Ukrainka airfield in the Amur region of the Far East, Ukrainian Real War Telegram channel reports.
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Source: Hot News
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