Ukraine on Thursday struck Russia’s Engels strategic bomber base with drones, causing a huge explosion and blaze about 700 km (435 miles) from the front lines of the war, Russian officials said, as per Reuters.
The explosion, confirmed by videos being shared on Russian Telegram channels, leveled nearby cottages and filled the air with a cloud of smoke. The Engels base, an aging facility dating back to Soviet times, is home to Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable bombers, or ‘White Swans’.
Saratov’s governor, Roman Busargin, confirmed the attack on Engels city, saying that it set an airfield ablaze and led to evacuations of citizens from nearby areas. Maxim Leonov, who is the chief of Engels district, confirmed a local state emergency but said little about the incident. Reuters was unable to confirm independently the extent of the damage at the base.
This is not the initial attack on Engels; Ukraine had earlier hit the airbase in December 2022 and January, with a strike on an oil depot resulting in a huge fire. A Ukrainian security source had reported an earlier drone attack on a storage facility with guided bombs and missiles at the Engels base.
Ukraine also separately attacked Russia’s Syzran oil refinery in Samara overnight. Regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said emergency services were at the scene and that there were no reports of casualties, although local Telegram channels reported a fire. Russia’s Defence Ministry stated that nine Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight by air defenses over Bryansk, Tatarstan, Tula regions, and the Black Sea.
