UK says supersonic Russian bomber likely destroyed in drone strike

Aug 22 (Reuters) – British military intelligence said on Tuesday that a weekend drone attack on an airfield inside Russia, which Moscow blamed on Ukraine, was likely to have destroyed a TU-22M3 long-range supersonic bomber. nuclear capable.

Kyiv, that Monday reclaimed having struck another Russian military airfield, says Russia has used the TU-22M3 to bomb targets across Ukraine with conventional munitions. Western military experts believe that Russia has about 60 aircraft.

The destruction of the plane, which may be equipped with conventional or nuclear warheads, underscores the vulnerability to drone strikes of Russia’s fleet of aging but deadly long-range bombers, which are an important part of Moscow’s war effort.

According to satellite images reviewed by Reuters, the attack prompted Russia to relocate other planes of the same type from the airfield to alternative bases further away from Ukraine.

Unconfirmed media reports said they had been airlifted to a base in northern Russia.

Ministry of Defense of Russia said the attack on Saturday at one of its military airfields in the Novgorod region was carried out by a Ukrainian drone and one of the planes was damaged. He did not elaborate.

Satellite images taken two days after the attack on the same airfield on August 21 and seen by Reuters showed burned ground, a hole and, judging by the shape, what appears to be aircraft debris on the runway where the images from the same site on August 8 showed a military plane.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which rarely publicly takes responsibility for such attacks, though it has said it will do everything possible to downgrade Russian military assets.

Russia, which has designated Britain a hostile country because of its military and financial support for Ukraine, did not comment on Britain’s assessment of the damage.

‘SUCCESSFUL ATTACK’

In a regular update on Ukraine, British military intelligence said that “a Russian Long-Range Aviation (LRA) Tu-22M3 BACKFIRE medium bomber was most likely destroyed at Soltsy-2 airbase in Novgorod Oblast, at 650 km (403 miles) away from Ukraine”. edge”.

“This is at least the third successful attack on LRA airfields, which again raises questions about Russia’s ability to protect strategic locations deep inside the country,” it said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the attack had been carried out by a Ukrainian helicopter-type drone that had been shot down with small arms and that no one had been injured.

British military intelligence said that if a helicopter-style drone had really been used, it would add weight to the idea that the attacks were being launched from inside Russia, as such drones were unlikely to have had the range to reach the target. airfield from outside Russia.

Russia has often used TU-22M3 jets to bomb Ukraine, he added, criticizing what he called the “notoriously inaccurate” heavy anti-ship missiles the plane fires.

Russia says it uses high-precision missiles to strike targets and does not deliberately target civilians or civilian targets, a claim kyiv and its allies reject.

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