Photo Caption,
Su-34
05 Apr 2024 08:21 GMT
During a massive attack by drones on the territory of Russia this night, the Defense Forces of Ukraine were able to destroy and damage almost a dozen Russian aircraft, Ukrainian Air Force sources in the special services reported.
In particular, we are talking about the attack on the Morozovsk airfield near Rostov, which, according to sources, was carried out by the SBU together with the Defense Forces.
At least six planes were destroyed, and another eight were seriously damaged, the interlocutors say.
The BBC cannot confirm this from independent sources, Russia does not comment on the loss of its planes.
“Front-line Su-27 and Su-34 bombers and fighters were based at the airfield — these are the planes Russia uses to drop anti-aircraft missiles on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian front-line cities,” sources say.
Also, according to the security forces, 20 servicemen who were at the airfield could have been killed or injured.
Russia announced attacks on its airfields this night. However, they claim that all the drones were shot down.
At night, the governor of the Rostov region, Vasyl Golubev, published a short message: “In the Morozovsky district, air defense units repel a mass UAV attack.”
Later, he added: “According to preliminary data, more than 40 targets were destroyed by air defense forces in the Morozovsky district. As a result of the attack, an electric substation was damaged. Work is underway to restore power supply.”
At the same time, Golubev did not mention the airfield near Morozovsk.
However, even before Golubev’s reports, the Russian mass media, in particular the propaganda “Readovka”, wrote that the target of the attack was the airfield in Morozovsk.
With reference to local residents, “Ostorozhno Novosti” wrote that they saw “more than 15 air targets”.
Later, the governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, also reported on the drone attack.
“Early in the morning today in Engels, the UAV was eliminated. There were no injuries or damage to the infrastructure during the fall of the debris.”
From its wording, it is impossible to draw an unequivocal conclusion whether one drone was destroyed or more than one.
The local group wrote about numerous explosions, but if an air target is shot down with missiles, then at least two missiles are needed to intercept it.
Photo Caption,
Morozovsk Airport (satellite image of 2021)
Engels is known primarily for its base of Tu-95 and Tu-22 heavy bombers, which are used to attack the Ukrainian rear with cruise missiles from a long distance, usually from the Caspian region.
In social networks, they wrote about explosions right near the airfield. It has already been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Later, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that one drone was shot down in the Saratov region, 44 in the Rostov region, six drones were allegedly shot down over the Krasnodar region and one each over the Kursk and Belgorod regions.
One of the most massive blows is analysis
Pavlo Aksyonov, military commentator of the BBC
The strike by drones on several targets on the territory of Russia was one of the most massive. According to Russian sources, at least four dozen drones took part in it.
The strongest impact fell on Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region. According to the governor of the Rostov region, more than 40 drones were shot down near the airfield. the pro-Russian channel “Rybar” writes that a total of 44 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down – 26 by Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missiles, and 18 by small arms.
It is impossible to confirm this information from independent sources in the conditions of war.
Ukrainian sources, in turn, claim that as a result of the strikes on the Rostov airport, at least six planes were destroyed, eight more were “substantially damaged”.
According to video footage allegedly taken in the Morozovsky district at the time of the attack, it is impossible to draw clear conclusions about the consequences of the attack. This information can be confirmed when satellite images of the airfield taken on April 5 are released.
OSINT researcher MT Anderson posted on the X network (formerly Twitter) images taken by a radar satellite on April 4 at approximately three o’clock in the afternoon.
They show aircraft of the Su-27 family – the radar images are not clear enough to distinguish which ones.
This family includes Su-34 front-line bombers and Su-35 fighters. Both of them can be seen on satellite images of the airfield in the Google Maps service, taken on July 10, 2023.
Judging by the estimates of the scale of the attack made by Russian sources, the Ukrainian military has the opportunity to carry out mass attacks that can be compared with those carried out by the Russian army.
It is quite difficult to repulse an attack on one object with the participation of more than four dozen drones – for this, you need to have significant air defense equipment in stock.
If these drones strike at once, or within a short period of time, this “overloads” the anti-aircraft defense – the anti-aircraft systems may not have time to reload.
In the war with Ukraine, Russia uses Su-34, Su-35, as well as Su-30 fighters, which also belong to this family.
The Russian army uses the Su-34 for strikes with guided air bombs with the UMPK module.
This allows them to drop bombs several tens of kilometers from the target, without entering the zone of action of the main military means of air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to commentators, the use of these bombs in recent months allowed Russian troops to advance in some areas of the front.
