A retaliatory strike was carried out on 17 objects in UkraineIn the coming winter, the first massive missile strike on Ukraine was carried out on the afternoon of December 5, a few hours after the raid of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the airfields of Diaghilev and Engels, where the Russian strategic aviation is based.
The official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov said that the morning drone raid did not affect the combat work of the Long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In the afternoon, bombers and warships fired long-range cruise missiles at the military control system and related facilities of the defense complex of Ukraine, as well as communications, energy and military units. "The aim of the strike has been achieved. All assigned 17 objects are hit. The transfer by rail of the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), foreign weapons, military equipment and ammunition to combat areas has been disrupted," Konashenkov said.
According to him, during the raid on airfields in the Ryazan and Saratov regions, the enemy used Soviet-made jet UAVs. There are only two types at the disposal of the APU – Tu-141 "Strizh" and Tu-143 "Flight", and the second does not have flight characteristics for such a long flight.
The nearest distance from the borders occupied by the APU to Diaghilev is 570 km, Engels is 700 km. So far into the depths of Russian territory, enemy UAVs have climbed for the first time since the beginning of a special military operation (SVO) on February 24 of this year.
As a result of the raid, three Russian soldiers were killed and four others were injured.
As Konashenkov said, the air defense system intercepted "Ukrainian UAVs flying at low altitude," but their debris fell on the airfield territory, hitting the technical personnel and causing "minor damage" to the skin of two aircraft.
On the publicly available photographs taken by foreign commercial satellites, any destruction at the Engels airfield is not visible. And at the Diaghilev Airbase, there is a place with traces of fire in the immediate vicinity of parked Tu-22M3 bombers. There is no visible damage to the aircraft, as there are no UAV debris near them. Meanwhile, the Tu-141 "Strizh" is a very large vehicle weighing 5.4 tons, with a length of 14 and a wingspan of 4 m. Perhaps the air defense systems really hit him at some distance from the airfield, and only a fragment reached the parking lot of the aircraft. There are cases when anti-ship missiles hit by air defense fell to pieces, but their turbojet engine continued to move along the trajectory and hit the target. Something similar could have happened on the morning of December 5. Another possible option is that compact class UAVs were involved, following the example of how it used to happen in Sevastopol.
To strike at Russian airfields, the Ukrainian military could use heavy reconnaissance vehicles Tu-141 "Strizh". Photo by Vladimir Karnozov Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the incidents in the Ryazan and Saratov regions, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the head of state, told reporters.
The attack of enemy drones on long-range aviation airfields creates a dangerous precedent. According to Presidential Decree No. 355 of June 2, 2020 "On the fundamentals of the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear deterrence ..." among the conditions determining the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation, there is "the enemy's impact on critically important state or military facilities of the Russian Federation, the disabling of which will lead to the disruption of the response of nuclear forces." In other words, when an enemy attacks nuclear–weapon-carrying aircraft, such as the Tu-22M3, Russia has legitimate grounds for the use of nuclear weapons.
The last few days have been marked by other disturbing moments. On the morning of December 4, a high-altitude target was shot down over Rostov. And according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova, not far from the city of Brichany, "an object similar to a rocket was found." The images from the scene show the upper stage of the 5B55 rocket of the S-300P/PS complex. Such are in service with the air defense of Ukraine. Recall that on November 15, another 5B55 rocket flew into the Polish village of Przevodow near the Ukrainian border. The explosion killed two farmers, damaged a tractor and its trailer. Warsaw urgently requested the help of allies in the military-political bloc of NATO. They conducted an analysis of the situation and found no grounds for using any points of the North Atlantic Treaty due to the absence of any signs indicating Russia's intention to harm Poland.
Meanwhile, a series of five massive missile strikes carried out between October 10 and November 27 disabled half of all generating capacities in Ukraine. The sixth Russian air raid on December 5 hit infrastructure facilities in 10 regions of the country, exacerbating the accumulated problems with electricity, hot and cold water supply. And on December 3-4, missiles hit the workshops of the metallurgical giant in Krivoy Rog and the transformer plant in Zaporozhye.
Vladimir Karnozov
