Ukraine drone strike reportedly destroys Russian flagship supersonic bomber

Ukraine has destroyed a supersonic Russian jet in a drone strike, according to reports from the BBC and Ukrainian media.

The reports were based on images posted on social media which appear to show the long-range bomber, the Tupolev Tu-22, on fire. The images were analysed by the BBC, but have not been independently verified by the Guardian.

The burning plane appeared to be located south of St Petersburg, the BBC reported, using visual clues and historical satellite images of the airbase.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone had targeted a military airfield in Russia’s Novgorod region, causing a fire and damaging one warplane. Ukraine has not acknowledged the strike and rarely comments on attacks on Russian territory.

The Russian ministry said nobody was hurt in the attack and the fire was quickly extinguished. The Novgorod region lies northwest of Moscow, hundreds of kilometres from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

“As a result of the terrorist attack on the territory of the airfield, a fire broke out in the parking lot of aircraft, which was quickly eliminated by fire fighters. One aircraft was damaged,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to the BBC, the jet was situated at the location of the attack, and had been used extensively to launch missiles on Ukraine during the war.

“Images posted on the social media platform Telegram showed a large fire engulfing a jet with the distinctive nose cone of the Tu-22,” the BBC reported.

The New Voice of Ukraine reported that Ukrainian drones had damaged five planes in recent days.

Citing Ukrainian intelligence, known as the GUR, it reported that the Tu-22 M3 was “destroyed” on 19 August and that two other aircraft were damaged. Two days later on 21 August, two bomber planes in Kaluga were damaged, “as a result of an attack by drones controlled by GUR saboteurs.”

In January this year the UK Ministry of Defence said, “An “AS-4 Kitchen” large anti-ship missile, launched from a Russian “Tu-22M3 Backfire” medium bomber, highly likely struck a block of flats in Dnipro city which resulted in the death of at least 40 people.”

Drone airstrikes deep inside Russia have increased in recent months. On Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry said air defence forces had shot down a Ukraine-launched missile over the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and which has also seen a surge in drone and missile attacks.

At least two people were injured on Monday when parts of a Ukrainian drone destroyed by Russian air defences fell on a house in the Moscow region, the regional governor said. Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s four main airports - Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky - were restricted, disrupting 45 passenger planes and two cargo planes, Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.

The governor of Kaluga region, south of Moscow, said a drone attack had also been repelled there.