After a large-scale drone attack on Russian airbases carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation redeployed strategic bombers to remote airfields.
This is reported by UNN with reference to the Telegram channel The Moscow Times and OSINT analyst AviVector.
Details
After the attacks on airfields in the Irkutsk and Murmansk regions, the Russian command withdrew dozens of aircraft from there, including Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3. According to OSINT analyst AviVector, the planes were transferred to airbases in regions as far away from Ukraine as possible.
In particular:
- 7 Tu-160 bombers were redeployed from the "Bila" airfield (Irkutsk region);
- Another 3 Tu-160s were moved from the "Olenya" airfield (Murmansk region);
- 2 Tu-160s were spotted in Anadyr in Chukotka;
- 3 Tu-160 – in Yelizovo (Kamchatka);
- 3 Tu-160 – at the Borisoglebsk airbase (Tatarstan).
In addition, 11 Tu-22M3 bombers flew from a base in the Murmansk region to:
- Ukrainka airbase in the Amur region;
- Mozdok base in North Ossetia (previously almost never used)
4 Tu-95MS were also transferred to Mozdok, and another 4 to Engels-2 in the Saratov region.
According to Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal Institute for Defense Studies, Moscow is thus trying to minimize the risk of new Ukrainian UAV strikes.
Former British Air Force Commander Greg Bagwell did not rule out that Russia would have to regularly change the location of its aviation bases. Reference Operation "Pavutyna" took place on June 1 and was prepared for more than a year and a half. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is called its curator.
During the operation, the following were attacked:
- airbase "Bila" (Irkutsk region); "Olenya" airfield (Murmansk region);
- attempts were also made to attack the airfields "Dyagilevo";
- "Ivanovo-Pivnichny" and "Ukrainka".
The attack resulted in the destruction of 41 Russian strategic aircraft.