Ukraine struck Russian warplanes at a base its fighter-bombers flee to when other airfields are in danger, intel says

Ukrainian forces launched an attack on a Russian airbase that’s used as a fallback spot for fighter jets pulled from more vulnerable locations, a new Western intelligence assessment said.

Ukraine used long-range drones on Friday to strike the Marinovka airbase in Russia’s Volgograd region, over 270 miles from the front lines, destroying at least two Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft.

Russia uses Marinovka for its daily combat operations, but it has also functioned as a haven for dispersed aircraft taken from other threatened airbases, Britain’s defense ministry said in a Tuesday intel update that confirmed some details of the attack.

Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft were relocated to Marinovka from Morozovsk airbase, which is closer to the front lines, after it was hit by Ukrainian drones in August 2024. However, “despite these dispersal efforts to protect their aircraft, Russian aviation remains vulnerable” to Kyiv’s attacks, the defense ministry said.

The attack on Marinovka on Friday was a joint operation carried out by Ukraine’s SBU internal security agency, its Special Operations Forces, and other elements of the military.

The SBU said that the attack destroyed two Su-34 and damaged two other aircraft, while the military said all four planes were destroyed. Ukraine also noted that the drone attacks caused a fire in the maintenance and repair areas of the airbase. Business Insider could not immediately confirm the details of the operation.

The Su-34 “Fullback” fleet has been a serious problem for Ukraine, as Russia arms these aircraft with its highly destructive glide bombs and employs them to devastating effect.

Glide bombs are unguided dumb bombs fitted with special kits that turn them into precision-guided munitions. With short flight times, small radar signatures, and non-ballistic trajectories, they are incredibly difficult to intercept and have been used in deadly strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Russia’s defense industry produces glide bombs in a range of different sizes. Among the larger munitions is one that weighs more than 6,000 pounds, which is very destructive on impact.

Britain’s defense ministry said Russia relies on its Su-34 fleet to execute “huge amounts of daily sorties launching glide bombs” across the front lines. It further added that Moscow has now lost more than 30 of these aircraft since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Ukraine has made it a priority to curb the glide bomb threat and has carried out a number of deep strikes over the past year aimed at Su-34 aircraft, the airfields they’re based at, and storage sites for these munitions.

The glide bombs continue to be a major challenge for Kyiv. On Sunday, for instance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian warplanes had launched nearly 1,100 of these munitions over the previous week.

The Marinovka attack comes amid Ukraine’s relentless efforts to degrade Russian aviation capabilities. Over the weekend, Kyiv carried out another drone strike that targeted helicopter operations at a base in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

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