Yurii Ihnat, Air Force spokesman, said that explosions on a military airfield in Engels, Russia, that allegedly killed three soldiers are “the consequences of Russian aggression” in Ukraine.
“If the Russians thought that the war would not affect them deep in the rear, they were wrong,” added Ihnat.
Local Russian Telegram channels reported explosions and air raid sirens in Engels on the morning of Dec. 26.
Russian Defense Ministry said that the air defense shot down a Ukrainian drone near the Engels airbase, and three servicemen died due to the fall of the drone’s wreckage.
Engels city is located in Russia’s Saratov Oblast, around 730 kilometers southeast of Moscow and hundreds of kilometers from Ukraine.
Tu-95 long-range bombers that Russia stations at Engels form a significant component of its strategic nuclear arsenal. The bombers have been used to take part in cruise missile strikes against Ukraine.
Russian officials earlier blamed Ukraine for explosions at Engels Air Base and Dyagilyaevo airfield near Ryazan on Dec. 5 that killed three people and damaged two Tu-95 heavy bombers.
Ukraine neither confirmed nor denied its responsibility for the incidents.
The U.K. Defense Ministry called the alleged attacks “some of the most strategically significant failures of (Russian) force protection.”
