<p >The Ukrainian Armed Forces on June 6 launched a successful series of strikes on multiple Russian military targets, which were reportedly intended to pre-empt large scale Russian attacks. The Russian <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/russia-responds-ukraine-drone-strike-air-missile" target="_blank">attacks in question</a> were launched in the afternoon of June 6, and were stated by multiple Russian government sources to have been launched in response to Ukraine’s own <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-most-successful-strike-russian-bomber-bases" target="_blank">devastating drone raids</a> on its key bomber facilities five days prior, as well as the destruction of railway infrastructure which caused significant civilian casualties. The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff announced regarding the attack: “on the eve of the massive enemy shelling, enemy airfields and other important military facilities were hit,” adding that a successful strike was carried out on Engels-2 Airbase in the Saratov region. “The Diaghilev airfield in the Ryazan region, where air tankers and escort fighters are based, which are used to provide missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine, was also hit,” it elaborated. Engels-2 Airbase has since the 1990s been the most important strategic bomber facility in Russia, and alongside Tu-95MS bombers that form the backbone of the fleet and are deployed widely across the country, it also hosts the country’s sole operational unit of <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ruaf-four-tu160ms-recieve-months" target="_blank">Tu-160 bombers</a>.</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/07/article_68444c353acab4_87904562.png" title="Tu-95MS Bomber Hit During June 1 Attack on Belaya Airbase"></p><p >Commenting on the attack in Engels-2, Saratov Govoernor Roman Busargin stated: “As a result of the UAV attack, there is a fire at one of the industrial enterprises in Engels… There are no preliminary casualties. All relevant services are working on the scene. Specialists are taking all necessary measures to eliminate the consequences.” The Russian Defence Ministry stated regarding Ukraine’s attacks that the Armed Forces “alerted air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 174 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over Bryansk, Rostov, Saratov, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Oryol, Ryazan, Tula, Belgorod, Tambov, and Moscow regions, and the Republic of Crimea.” “Three Ukrainian Neptune-MD guided missiles were also destroyed over the Black Sea by air defence systems,” it further reported. Footage from near Engels-2 has shown the fuel depot there being struck and fully engulfed in flames, raising the possibility that the facility may have suffered further damage.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/06/07/article_68444c7d3bafe3_30928370.webp" title="Fuel Tanks Ablaze After Ukrainian Strike on Engels-2"></p><p >The concentration of Tu-160 bombers at Engles-2 has been a primary factor preventing their destruction in Ukraine’s June 1 drone <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/how-damaged-russian-bomber-ukraine-drone-attack" target="_blank">attacks on other bomber bases </a>across the country. The facility is nevertheless far from fully secure, and has been hit during multiple previous Ukrainian attacks. On January 8 a Ukrainian long range drone strike <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-major-blow-russia-strategic-bomber-fleet" >successfully targeted</a> the Kombinat Kristall fuel depot near the&nbsp;airbase, with the attack is reported to have destroyed reserves of T-8V high-density specialised aviation fuel used by the Tu-160 fleet. A subsequent drone strike on March 20 caused a <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/ukraine-successful-strike-key-hub-russian-tu160-fleet" >major explosion</a> at the facility.&nbsp;These strikes were far from unprecedented, with Engels-2 having been attacked three times in December 2022 alone, in one case by a jet-powered drone class. The fact that these attacks have consistently failed to neutralise the bomber fleet, however, indicates that air defences and fortifications in place may be effective.&nbsp;Nevertheless, the repeated successful attacks on a very high value target located more than 500 kilometres behind the frontlines as been interpreted by many analysts as reflecting poorly on the capabilities of Russian air defences to counter emerging threats, which has serious implications for the security of its facilities in the event of a broader conflict with NATO.</p>
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