A drone shoots down Russian Tu-22M3 bombers at the Soltsy air base
Preliminary reports of at least two Tu-22M3 bombers that may have been damaged by the drone
Unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the Russian military airfield “Soltsy” in the Novgorod region – a photo was posted online showing the arrival of Russian bombers at the place of basing, and the Russian defense ministry was also forced to admit to the attack on the airfield.
According to the “official” position of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the attack took place today, August 19, at about 10 o’clock. Allegedly, the drone “was detected by the airfield’s external surveillance post and was hit with small arms.”
As a result of the attack, a fire broke out in the airplane parking lot, which was allegedly quickly extinguished. Also, the Russian Defense Ministry says that one plane was damaged, but there are no casualties.
One thing to note here is that the drone was shot down with small arms, even though it was an active air base. Another point is that the occupiers generally acknowledged the strike on the airfield and even the damage to the plane, which may well hint that the actual consequences of this strike could be much more powerful.
For example, a number of monitoring channels reported that at least two Russian Tu-22M3 bombers may have been damaged – in particular, monitoring says that the drone may have damaged an oil storage facility, which could have also damaged Russian aircraft (which could have also “received” the UAV debris).
At the same time, as of 15:23, it is reported that the occupiers decided to move at least five of their Tu-22M3s from the Soltsy airfield, which was attacked by the drone, to the Olenya airfield.
It should be reminded that the Russian military airfield “Soltsy” is used by the Russians for about a dozen of their Tu-22M3 bombers, which carry out terrorist missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine. It is located more than 650 km from the border with Ukraine.
For example, during another terrorist attack on the night of August 15, the enemy fired four X-22 cruise missiles at Ukraine from its six Tu-22M3 aircraft that took off from the Soltsy and Shaykovka airfields.
