After another Ukrainian drone attack, Russia moving bombers away from airbase in Engels
After the second Ukrainian drone attack on a military airfield in Engels in a month, Russia has started moving its strategic bombers oi other air bases.
The investigative project Monitor reports that on the afternoon of Monday, December 26, at least 6 Russian aircraft took to the skies from the airfield in Engels and headed to the Far East to the base Ukrainka, located in the Seryshevsky district of the Amur region.
According to the speaker of the Ukrainian Air Force Command Yuri Ignat, there is still "a certain number of aircraft in Engels, but many of them have already been relocated to other airfields" that can host, maintain, and service them. He also said that now Ukraine expects another massive strike on its territory in response to the attack on the Russian air base.
On the night of December 26, the military airfield in the city of Engels, Saratov region, was rocked by explosions and air raid sirens went off in the city. The Russian Defense Ministry said that a drone flying at a low altitude was intercepted and downed by the air defense. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, three Russian soldiers were killed by the falling debris. The Ministry claimed that the aircraft based at the airfield were not damaged.
Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Zolkin claimed that 17 Russian servicemen were killed and 26 were injured in the drone attack. According to him, five TU-95MS bombers and a control tower were damaged. Russia reportedly started moving the other strategic bombers away from the airfield. Satellite photos published by the project Schemes showed that of the 21 Tu-95 aircraft that were at the Engels airfield on December 4, 15 remained after the attack, and one of the aircraft was damaged.