A powerful explosion at the military airfield in the city of Engels in Russia occurred on the night of December 26.

This is the second "cotton" in a month at the air base of Russian strategic bombers, which launch cruise missiles over Ukraine.

TSN.ua collected details of a new attack on a Russian military airfield.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia confirmed the drone attack on the airfield and informed about the dead soldiers.

"Three Russian servicemen were mortally wounded due to the fall of UAV debris at the airfield in Engels," the message reads.

At the same time, it is reported that the military equipment was allegedly not damaged, and the drone was shot down on the approach to the airfield.

Local mass media report three dead and four hospitalized.

The area of ​​the fire after the explosion reached 120 square meters.

Security forces surrounded the territory of the airfield.

Roman Busargin, the governor of the Saratov region of the Russian Federation, said that there was no threat to local residents, and civil infrastructure facilities were not damaged.

The Armed Forces commented on the explosion

The spokesman of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

, Yuriy Ignat

, on the air of the all-Ukrainian telethon on the TSN YouTube channel, called the "cotton" in Engels a consequence of Russian aggression.

"This is another "cotton" that we are already used to hearing.

This is a consequence of what Russia is doing on our land. If the Russians thought that the war would not affect them in the deep rear or anywhere, then they were deeply mistaken

. Such things happen all the time more often. Let's hope that it will only be good for Ukraine," he said.

At the same time, Ignat did not comment on possible damage to Russian planes:

"We need to have at least satellite images in front of our eyes that will tell us everything. Past events that happened at this and other airfields still led to some damage to the planes. I think in a few days we will have satellite images, they will be online Internet in any case".

Also, the spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that after the first "cotton" in Engels, "

the redeployment of Tu-95 and Tu-160 aircraft to other airfields

, which can provide flights of these aircraft, carry out their maintenance, and so on, was noticed."

"This dispersion happened then, and they are already trying to keep strategic aviation at several airfields," Ignat added.

What effect do attacks on airfields have?

Military expert

Serhiy Grabskyi

on the air of the "Freedom" channel noted that explosions at military airfields in the deep rear of the enemy have two important effects - military and psychological.

"From a military point of view, you need to understand the following - we can endlessly try to strengthen our air defense, increasing it qualitatively and quantitatively, but this will not help us sufficiently prevent the causes. And the causes are the carriers. Those objects that can carry out the wings of launched missiles , these are usually air, water or underwater carriers.

Thus, the task of such strikes... sorry, "careless smoking" on such objects leads to the fact that the enemy loses carriers that he cannot reproduce

, "Hrabsky explained.

The expert recalled that the previous drone attack on Engels resulted in the Russians losing at least two planes, "and two planes are at least 4, let's say 8 missiles that cannot be launched at the same time."

"And such strikes, such retaliation leads to the fact that the enemy loses his offensive or striking potential, which does not allow him to expand the zone of influence and the task of strikes on our critical infrastructure. This is a very correct action, because

along with the military effect, there is also a psychological one - retribution comes where the enemy never expected it, and he receives the well-deserved punishment

," he said.

A series of "cotton" at Russian airbases

On the morning of December 5, explosions rang out at airfields near Ryazan (Diaghilev) and in the Saratov region (Engels).

It became known that two Tu-95 missile carriers were damaged at the Engels Air Base.

A gas tanker exploded at the airfield near Ryazan, and a Tu-95 plane was damaged.

The Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged the incident and reported that the explosions damaged two planes and killed 4 Russian occupants.

The strikes were allegedly carried out by "reactive Soviet drones".

On December 6, a fire broke out at the airfield in Kursk as a result of a drone attack, an oil storage tank caught fire.

Andrii Yusov

, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

, noted that Ukraine cannot confirm or deny involvement in the explosions.

Military expert

Mykhailo Prytula

suggested that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have used Soviet Tu-141 drones, converted from reconnaissance to strike, for attacks on Diaghilev and Engels.

Read also:

  • Putin spoke about changing the strategy of the war in Ukraine: what does it mean

  • When to expect new missile attacks from Russia: the opinion of a military expert

  • Defense of Bakhmut: what is happening at the hottest point of the front (details, video and map)