Two aircraft catch fire at Soltsy airbase in Novgorod region after alleged drone strike

This was reported by local Telegram channels.

The Russian Ministry of Defence accused Ukraine of the attack.

"Today, at about 10.00 Moscow time, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using a copter-type UAV on a military airfield in the Novgorod region," the statement said.

It is noted that as a result of the attack, a fire broke out at the airfield's aircraft parking lot, which was promptly extinguished by fire crews. One aircraft was damaged, and no one was injured in the terrorist attack.

In his Telegram channel, journalist Andriy Tsaplienko noted that after the attack on the airbase, the Russian occupiers began to redeploy.

"After the strike on the Soltsy airbase, a couple of Tu-22m3s are being redeployed to Olenya," he said in a statement.

Ukrainian Defense Express media and consulting company said that according to preliminary reports of at least two Tu-22M3 bombers that may have been damaged by the drone's hit.

Analysts note that the drone was shot down with small arms, even though it was an active airbase. Another point is that Russian occupiers acknowledged the strike on the airfield and even the damage to the aircraft, which may well suggest 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 could have been damaged - in particular, monitoring says that the drone could have damaged an oil storage facility, which could have also affected Russian aircraft (which could have also been hit by the wreckage of the UAV).

At the same time, as of 3:23 pm, it is reported that the Russian forces decided to move at least five of their Tu-22M3s from the Soltsy airfield, which was attacked by the drone, to the Olenya airfield.

As a reminder, 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 Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukraine from its six Tu-22M3 aircraft, which took off from the Soltsy and Shaykovka airfields.