Explosions at airfields are one of Russia's strategic failures in war

The explosions at Russian airfields can be assessed as one of the most strategically significant failures of Russian defense since the invasion of Ukraine.

This was reported by the British Ministry of Defense on Twitter.

As noted in the review, on December 5, several open sources reported explosions at the Engels airbase in Russia's Saratov region and at the Dyagilevo airfield near Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. Two Tu-95 BEAR heavy bombers were reportedly damaged in Engels and three people were killed in a fuel tank explosion at Dyagilevo.

"The causes of the explosions have not been confirmed. However, if Russia assesses the incidents were deliberate attacks, it will probably consider them as some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine," the review said.

These sites are much deeper inside Russia than previous such bombings: Engels is more than 600 kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory.

According to British intelligence, Engels is the main operational base of the Russian Long-Range Aviation (LRA) in western Russia, where more than 30 heavy bombers are based. These aircraft are involved in Russia's "nuclear deterrent," and have also been frequently used to launch conventional cruise missiles into Ukraine.

"The LRA is likely to respond by temporarily moving bombers to dispersal airfields. The Russian chain of command will probably seek to identify and impose severe sanctions on Russian officers deemed responsible for allowing the incident.," the British Defense Ministry noted.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry, Andriy Yusov, stated that it was impossible to confirm or deny the involvement of Ukraine in the explosions at the Russian airfields on December 5. Such information will be known only after the end of the war.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 06/12/2022