Ukraine said on Friday that Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones destroyed a Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber at Engels-2 air base in Russia’s Saratov region, extending Kyiv’s campaign to eliminate aircraft Moscow uses for cruise-missile attacks before takeoff.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bomber had been used for strikes on Ukraine. The SBU said the aircraft suffered “critical damage,” with its tail section severed, and released video. The claim has not been independently verified: Saratov Governor Roman Busargin acknowledged a drone attack overnight on July 16 and damage to civilian infrastructure in Engels, but did not confirm an airfield strike.
The aircraft cannot be replaced through new production. The Tu-95 has been out of production since the early 1990s; each destroyed airframe reduces the fleet carrying Kh-101 cruise missiles used against Ukrainian cities — including the July 2024 strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, according to Ukrainian investigators and the UN human rights mission.
Ukraine’s General Staff said a March 2025 strike on Engels destroyed 96 cruise missiles stored there. The new claim follows Operation Spiderweb, the SBU’s June 2025 attack on four bomber bases; Washington assessed up to 20 warplanes were hit and around 10 destroyed.
Spiderweb showed Ukraine could reach strategic aircraft thousands of kilometres from the front. The Engels claim extends that method: rather than intercept every Kh-101 over Ukrainian cities, Kyiv is using drones to destroy their launch platforms on the ground. Russia can disperse or shelter the bombers, but it cannot manufacture new Tu-95s.
