Russian supersonic bomber destroyed by Ukrainian drone

Reports suggest that a very important Russian bomber plane was destroyed by a drone strike from Ukraine.

Pictures on social media that were studied by BBC Verify reveal a Tupolev Tu-22 plane engulfed in flames at the Soltsy-2 airbase, located in the southern part of St. Petersburg

Moscow stated that a drone was shot at with guns but was still able to “harm” an airplane. Ukraine has not said anything about it.

The Tu-22 is a fast plane that can fly really fast, twice as fast as sound. Russia has used this plane a lot to attack cities in Ukraine.

The Russian defense ministry reported that there was an attack using a drone helicopter around 10:00 am in Moscow on Saturday.

It said that Soltsy-2 is located at a military airfield in the Novgorod region.

The airfield’s lookout spotted the UAV and it was shot at with small guns, the ministry said.

One plane was harmed; nobody got hurt in the terrorist attack.

The report also mentioned that a fire started in the parking lot near the airfield but was put out quickly.

But, pictures on the social media app Telegram showed a big fire covering a jet with the unique front part called the nose cone of the Tu-22. The BBC Verify team looked at the pictures and thinks they are true.

While destroying one aircraft won’t significantly weaken the power of Moscow’s fleet of 60 planes, this operation shows that Kyiv is getting better at attacking targets far inside Russia.

Recently, Kyiv has been sending many unmanned aircraft to attack Moscow, which is a few hundred miles away. Soltsy-2 is about 400 miles (or 650 kilometers) away from the Ukraine border.

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense’s description of the drone as a “copter-type unmanned aerial vehicle” implies that it is a inexpensive and easily accessible device that can be launched over short distances.

The Tu-22 is an old war plane that can fly very fast and has wings that can move. It was called “Backfire” by Nato. This plane has been used a lot to attack cities in Ukraine.

Newer versions like the Tu-22M3 can go really fast, up to Mach 2, which is about 2,300 kilometers per hour or 1,430 miles per hour. They can also carry a lot of weapons, up to 24,000 kilograms, which can be regular bombs or missiles that can find their target on their own.

These weapons were used in fights in Syria, Chechnya, and Georgia and more recently in Ukraine.

According to lawyers in Kyiv, 30 people died when a missile launched from a Tu-22 plane hit a building in Dnipro in January.

They said that Russia’s 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment was responsible for the attack. The regiment is located at Soltsy-2.

BBC Verify was able to find out where the drone attack on Soltsy-2 in Ukraine happened by comparing what the aircraft and bays looked like to old satellite pictures of the airbase.

The weather conditions were rainy and cloudy at the time, which was similar to what was shown in the images and other photos taken by witnesses.

The parts of the airplane that can be seen in the video match those of a Tu-22M3.

Satellite pictures from the past were analyzed by BBC Verify. The pictures show that planes like this were kept at the base.

On Monday, a person who speaks for Ukraine’s defense intelligence service said that another military airplane was harmed in a drone attack in Russia’s Kaluga region.

The Russian media said there was an attack, but they said it didn’t cause any harm.