Ukraine’s SBU said on Friday, July 17, that it destroyed a Tu-95 strategic bomber at Engels air base in Russia’s Saratov region during a long-range drone strike that reached about 800 kilometers. Volodymyr Zelensky quickly cast the attack as another successful long-range sanction against Russia.
The SBU said the bomber suffered critical damage and that its tail section was completely torn off. Zelensky said SBU forces destroyed a Tu-95 military aircraft in Engels that had been used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine, and added that Ukraine was increasing the price Russia pays for its aggression.
The claim matters because the Tu-95 remains one of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ main strategic missile carriers. It first flew in 1952, and available estimates for 2023 put Russia’s fleet at 45 Tu-95MS bombers and 18 modernized Tu-95MSM aircraft. The upgraded Tu-95MSM can carry Kh-101 cruise missiles, while older versions are equipped with Soviet-era Kh-55 and Kh-555 missiles, with the aircraft capable of carrying up to six cruise missiles on an internal rotary launcher.
The SBU said the strike showed that Russia’s strategic aviation could no longer feel safe even at its most remote military airfields. But Russian authorities had not immediately commented on the claim, leaving the scale of the damage unconfirmed from Moscow’s side. That means the next development that matters is whether Russia accepts, rejects or tries to soften the account of what happened at Engels air base.
