Ukraine on Thursday struck a major Russian strategic bomber airfield with drones, triggering a huge blast and fire about 700 km from the front lines of the war.
It was gathered that there was a huge blast spreading out from the airfield, wrecking nearby cottages.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 132 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions.
Torizone reports that the base in Engels, which dates back to Soviet times, hosts Russia’s Tupolev Tu-160 nuclear-capable heavy strategic bombers, known unofficially as White Swans.
The governor of Saratov, Roman Busargin said there had been a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Engels that had left an airfield on fire, adding that nearby residents had been evacuated.
According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, its forces had struck the airfield and triggered secondary detonations of ammunition.
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine added that Russia had used the Engels base to carry out strikes on Ukraine.
Following the attack, Engels district head Maxim Leonov said that a local state of emergency had been declared but gave few details.
Ukraine has reportedly carried out previous attacks on the Engels air base dating back to December 2022.
In January it claimed to have struck an oil depot serving the base, causing a huge fire that took five days to put out.
