<p >The Ukrainian Armed Forces on March 20 launched a successful strike on Russia’s Engels Air Base close to 500 kilometres behind Russian lines, with footage confirming that drones were used to cause a major explosion at the facility. The facility serves the primary operational facility of Russia’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/putin-delegation-inspect-tu160m" >Tu-160 strategic bomber</a> fleet, and is the only one that hosts them permanently. The primary target of the attack appears to have been a weapons storage facility, possibly hosting ordinance for the Tu-160 fleet. It remains uncertain whether the explosion damaged any of the aircraft. The attack follows a previous <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-major-blow-russia-strategic-bomber-fleet" >long range drone strike</a> on January 8 targeting the Kombinat Kristall fuel depot near Engels Air Base, which sparked a large scale fire that engulfed large parts of the facility’s associated storage tanks. Ukraine has launched attacks on key assets related to Russia’s nuclear deterrent multiple times in the past, with examples having included prior attacks on bomber bases and&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-strike-space-communications" >radar facilities</a>, including in mid-May 2024 an&nbsp;<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-ballistic-missiles-russia-radars" >unprecedented strike</a>&nbsp;on a Voronezh-DM early warning radar system at the Armavir Radar Station.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/03/21/article_67dcc9d49714c9_91848220.jpeg" title="Russian Air Force Tu-160 Bombers"></p><p >The Ukrainian attack on Engels Air Base occurred days after ground units launched a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-launches-large-scale-ground-assault-belogrod" >large scale ground assault </a>on Russia’s Belogrod region, and nine days after a large scale drone attack involving 343 aircraft was launched against the Russian capital Moscow. The Russian Defence Ministry has claimed that escalated Ukrainian attacks are intended to derail ceasefire talks currently underway between Moscow and Washington, which are expected to see the United States support Kiev’s ceding of territory to its neighbour achieve a suspension of hostilities. The launching of attacks using low cost unmanned aviation and missile assets to destroy high value aircraft and aviation facilities is far from unprecedented, with Ukrainian forces having been highly successful on multiple occasions. Taking strategic bombers as an example, a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-drone-strike-damage-tu22m" >drone strike&nbsp;</a> deep into Russian territory on August 21, 2023, damaged a Tu-22M strategic bomber at Soltsy-2 Airbase in Novgorod. On June 13, 2024 over 70 drones were launched for an attack on Morosovsk Airfield in Russia’s Rostov region, approximately 250 kilometres behind the frontlines, fuelling speculation that one or more of the Su-34 strike fighters based there may have been damaged. In May 2024 U.S.-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles were <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukrainian-atacms-strike-mig31-destroy" >used to destroy</a> to of Russia’s high prized MiG-31BM interceptors at Belbek Air Base on the disputed Crimean Peninsula. The vulnerability of high value aviation assets to low cost strikes has been a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/america-s-new-austere-airfield-fighter-exercises-could-be-bad-news-for-china" target="_blank">major concern</a> for air forces across the world, including the U.S. Air Force in <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/f35-practice-critical-agile-combat-employment-ops-skorea" target="_blank">theatres such as Korea </a>and the Middle East.&nbsp;</p>
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