Bombings at airfields are one of Russia's strategic failures in the war, British intelligence
The explosions at the Russian airfields near Ryazan and Engels can be assessed as one of the most strategically significant failures of the Russian defense since the invasion of Ukraine.
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the British Ministry of Defense in Twitter.
As noted in the summary, on December 5, several open sources reported explosions at the Engels air base in the Saratov region of Russia and at the Diaghilyaevo airfield near Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. It is reported that two Tu-95 BEAR heavy bombers were damaged in Engels and three people were killed in a fuel tank explosion in Dyagilyaevo.
“The causes of the explosions have not been confirmed. However, if Russia assesses these incidents as deliberate attacks, it will likely consider them to be among the most strategically significant failures of force protection since the invasion of Ukraine,” the message reads.
These objects are located much deeper inside Russia than previous similar explosions: Engels is more than 600 km from the territory controlled by Ukraine.
According to British intelligence, Engels is the main operational base of the Russian long-range aviation (LAF) in western Russia, where more than 30 heavy bombers are based. These aircraft are involved in the “nuclear deterrent” of Russia, and have also been frequently used to launch conventional cruise missiles in Ukraine.
“ADD is likely to respond by temporarily moving bombers to staging airfields. Russian command will likely try to detect and apply strict sanctions to Russian officers who are considered responsible for allowing the incident,” the British Ministry of Defense notes.