Satellite images show aftermath of hit on Russian airfield hosting Su-34s

Satellite cameras showed the before and after pictures of an airfield reportedly stuck by Ukrainian forces.

In a post shared by open-source intelligence analyst Brady Africk, the Morozovsk air base in Russia can be seen pictured on June 4. It has its roof and runway intact, with several planes parked outside of it. However, on June 14, the roof is seemingly smashed in, with major damage to the runway, and no plane can be seen outside it.

Ukraine’s defense intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that his forces used at least 70 drones to strike the air base on the night of June 13 to 14. He told The War Zone Project that the operation was launched from Ukraine, using Ukrainian Dragon and Splash drones.

The Russian Ministry of Defence also reported a major Ukrainian drone attack that night, but it said its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 87 drones in total. Newsweek has been unable to verify these figures,

Several Russian Telegram channels quoted by Pravda said people living in the town of Morozovsk had reported hearing explosions.

Morozovsk is a military airfield in the Rostov Oblast, close to the city. It hosts front line bombers Su-24s, Su-24Ms and Su-34s, Russian twin-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range bombers.

This is the second substantial Ukrainian drone attack on Morozovsk in the last few months. On the night of April 4 to 5, a “large-scale attack” took place in the district, Vasily Golubev, the governor of Rostov Oblast, said. At the time, he said the Russian air defense network had destroyed more than 40 targets. When Budanov was asked whether Morozovsk would be attacked again, he answered “yes.”

Yehor Cherniev, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the deputy head of its national security, defense and intelligence committee, told Newsweek that Ukrainians were able to stop Russia’s summer Kharkiv offensive with American weapons.

He said: “We stopped the Russian offensive operation. We also destroyed some of their quite sophisticated and expensive air defense systems with the U.S. weapons,” Cherniev, who is also the permanent head of Ukraine’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

“It forced the Russians—probably not to leave the territory near the border—but to transfer some troops and transfer some equipment, some weapons, into their deep rear. So, it helps us protect our territory,” Cherniev added.

Attacks on Crimea ramping up, as they have throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, with Kyiv looking to reclaim the Black Sea peninsula. The region was annexed by Moscow in 2014.