Russia attacked an air base in central Ukraine and destroyed several Ukrainian fighter jets, Moscow said on Tuesday, sharing footage it said showed its air force striking the facility.
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that it had targeted Ukraine's Myrhorod air base, in the country's Poltava region southwest of Ukraine's border regions Sumy and Kharkiv.
Moscow destroyed five of Ukraine's operational Su-27 fighter jets, damaging two others that were undergoing repairs at the site, the Russian government said.
Moscow shared a brief clip it said was recorded by an airborne drone, showing the targeting of the air base with at least one visible explosion. Newsweek could not independently verify this footage. A spokesperson for Ukraine's air force declined to comment.
NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System appears to show a fire over the past day at a location in Poltava, visually matching the base shown in the video published by Russia's Defense Ministry.
Both Russia and Ukraine frequently zero in on each other's key air bases and vital, expensive assets, such as fighter jets.
Ukraine has used drones and missiles to target Russian air bases deep inside its internationally recognized territory—including facilities housing its heavy bombers—and its air bases dotted across the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's air force, including the Myrhorod air base. Moscow hit infrastructure and damaged unspecified equipment at the air base in June 2023, local authorities said at the time. Russia also attacked the air base early on in its full-scale invasion effort, which began in February 2022.
Yuriy Ignat, a former spokesperson for Ukraine's air force, said in a post on social media that Russia had attacked the Myrhorod air base. He added, "There are some losses, but not the ones the enemy is claiming."
He said Ukraine's air force "is doing everything to counteract the enemy, to mislead them," including using decoys. "This is a war, and unfortunately, not without losses of equipment," Ignat added.
Several prominent Russian military bloggers, often used as sources of information on Russia's war effort in Ukraine, said two Ukrainian Su-27 jets had been destroyed, with four more damaged.
Echoing the Ukrainian losses claimed by Russia's Defense Ministry, influential Russian military channel Fighterbomber described the attack as "the most effective attack on an airfield from our side" since the invasion began.
Ukraine is expected to receive its first batch of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets this month, and a senior Ukrainian commander said in June that Kyiv would store a number of the donated aircraft at "secure air bases outside of Ukraine so that they are not targeted here."
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more
