On Jan. 8, Ukrainian drones flew at least 400 miles to strike near the Russian air force’s Engels bomber base in the city of Saratov in southern Russia.
The blasts triggered a blaze at a sprawling depot containing as much as 800,000 tons of fuel—a blaze that raged for days.
The fire finally burned itself out, or firefighters extinguished it, after six days. Hours later on Tuesday, drones struck a second time. “There will be no rest for the wicked,” the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communication crowed.
The Tuesday attack was part of a wider wave of drone raids, reportedly the biggest of the 35-month wider war for Ukraine, that specifically targeted fuel and munitions storage and oil refineries, among other targets.
“Each damaged ammunition depot, refinery, tank farm or chemical plant weakens Russia’s ability to wage war against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian security service told Kyiv Post.
It’s unclear what types of drone were involved in the back-to-back attacks on Engels, but Kyiv Post mentioned the PD-2, Beaver, Liutyi and UJ-22—all of which are between six and 10 feet long and propeller-driven.
Ukraine has developed a dizzying array of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, including some based on modified sport planes that can range 800 miles with hundreds of pounds of explosives.
Whichever drone types were involved, the double-tap strike had a clear aim—to constrain Russian air raids on Ukrainian cities, even if only temporarily.
Engels is home to the Russian air force’s Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers, which routinely strike Ukraine with cruise missiles. Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and wounded in these missile raids.
“This storage facility holds (held) rare fuel for Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet that regularly rains a range of missiles onto the people of Ukraine,” the Center for Strategic Communication explained.
Blowing up a fuel depot, even twice, won’t stop the missile attacks—there are other bomber bases, after all—but it might slow the pace of the attacks for a while. And if Ukrainian drones continue striking, and Russian air defenses do nothing to stop them, the effect on Russian bomber ops might intensify.
The Ukrainians smell blood—or, more accurately, burning aviation fuel. Drones have struck Engels at least eight times since Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022. More strikes are surely coming.
“Today, I held a staff meeting,” Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday. “The key issue was the development of our drones and all forms of their usage. There were reports on production and contracts—from [first-person-view] drones to long-range ones—as well as on solutions aimed at more effectively destroying the occupiers and protecting the lives of our soldiers.”
Zelensky was apparently presented ideas for new and presumably improved drones. “We have technological proposals that need to be implemented,” he wrote. Whether those proposals had anything to do with the kinds of drones that double-tapped Engels is unclear.
But don’t be shocked if they did. As Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year, the Ukrainians are striking deeper inside Russia, more frequently—and with greater effect. And their ambition to strike even deeper and more often is growing.
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