Ukraine focuses pinpoint attacks on Russia’s key military installationspublished at 15:50 Greenwich Mean Time 23 March

15:50 GMT 23 March

Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst

As Russia continues its aerial bombardment of Ukraine with drones and missiles, Ukraine has been successfully targeting the sources of some of those attacks.

One of those was at Engels-2 Airbase, deep inside Russia and which is a key base for Moscow’s strategic bombers and also serves as a refuelling point.

Engels-2, says Ukraine, also stores weapons including Kh-101 subsonic, air-launched cruise missiles, which, costing millions of dollars per missile, have been frequently used in overnight strikes.

A drone strike on Engels is reported to have destroyed ammunition storage facilities, with before-and-after images from Maxar satellite imagery detailing the extent of the operation.

Aerial shot of a large base with multiple buildings, surrounded by empty land.

Image caption,

Engels-2 Airbase, in Russia, is a key base for Moscow’s strategic bombers

Aerial shot of the same large base as previous image, with black scorch marks visible from above.

Image caption,

A drone strike on Engels-2 Airbase is reported to have destroyed ammunition storage facilities

Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine Defence Council’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, wrote on Telegram: “At Engels, the Russians lost missiles, including the Kh-101, as a result of the strike. The number will be clear later. This airfield stores the largest number of missiles used by strategic aviation to strike Ukraine.”

While Russia’s military operation is defined by the sheer size of attacks, Ukraine’s much more limited resources are having to be focused on pinpoint hits on key military installations.

Russia will try to continue its overnight raids to overwhelm air defences and the electronic warfare systems Kyiv uses to try to defeat the drones that pour in.