Ukrainian Drones Just Took Out A Russian Heavy Bomber 300 Miles From Ukraine

For ten months, the Russian air force’s heavy bombers have bombarded Ukrainian cities with impunity, lobbing cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away and even, in a few dramatic sorties, flying directly over the besieged port of Mariupol to drop unguided bombs.

These nearly daily bomber raids have destroyed homes, schools and churches and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Ukrainian civilians.

Now the Ukrainian armed forces have exacted a measure of revenge. On Monday morning, Ukrainian drones struck the Russian bomber bases at Dyagilevo and Engels, respectively 100 and 400 miles southeast of Moscow—and both nearly 300 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The nearly simultaneous drone raids damaged two bombers, killed three Russian personnel and wounded four, according to the Russian defense ministry.

Photos that circulated online in the hours after the attack confirm the damage to one bomber at Dyagilevo, a twin-engine, swing-wing Tupolev Tu-22M3. It was the supersonic Tu-22M3s that, back in the spring, carpet-bombed the Ukrainian garrison holed up at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

The Russian air force has plenty of bombers left: 60 Tu-22Ms, 60 subsonic Tupolev Tu-95s and 16 supersonic Tupolev Tu-160s. But if the Ukrainians can strike distant bombers bases once, there’s no reason they can’t do it again.

The Kremlin claimed its air-defenses intercepted the incoming drones. The damage and casualties were the result of “the fall and explosion of fragments,” it alleged. That may be true, but it doesn’t make the Ukrainian raid any less successful. Wrecked bombers and dead troops don’t care if they were hit by wreckage or an intact drone.

The raids on Dyagilevo and Engels aren’t isolated incidents. The Ukrainian armed forces have been striking Russian air bases deep inside Russia since the first month of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine starting in February.

One of the most successful raids, targeting Saki air base in occupied Crimea in August, knocked out several Russian navy fighter-bombers.

The Ukrainians have struck Russian air bases with long-range artillery, rockets, ballistic missiles, explosives-laden “suicide” drones and even—allegedly—land-based anti-ship missiles. In one startling attack in October, Ukrainian saboteurs traveled to an air base in Pskov, 500 miles from Ukraine, and blew up at least one Russian air force Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopter.

Ukraine’s counter-airfield campaign is reaching deeper and deeper into Russia, putting at risk some of the Kremlin’s most valuable assets. For the Russians, it’s a troubling development.

It’s not for no reason that, just hours after the attacks on Dyagilevo and Engels, the Russian air force struck back at Ukrainian cities, launching at least 14 Tu-95s carrying long-range cruise missiles programmed to strike “communication centers, energy and military units of Ukraine,” according to the Kremlin.

The mass bombing raid was revenge for Ukraine’s revenge. “All 17 assigned targets were hit,” the Kremlin stated.