Ukraine says its latest attack on a Russian air base blew up 96 cruise missiles

• Ukraine said a caller onslaught connected Russia's Engels-2 aerial basal destroyed 96 cruise missiles.

• Satellite images amusement blackened craters.

• Russia has utilized the aerial basal to motorboat regular bomber attacks connected Ukraine.

Ukraine's equipped forces said that a caller onslaught connected 1 of Russia's cardinal subject aerial bases caused a stockpile of 96 air-launched cruise missiles to explode.

Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said Thursday that the missiles were destroyed arsenic the effect of a secondary explosion. It's unclear if immoderate craft were hit.

Images of a monolithic plume of occurrence and fume went viral past week aft the onslaught connected Russia's Engels-2 subject aerial base, successful the Saratov region, which is utilized by Russia to motorboat Tu-95 and Tu-160 bomber attacks connected Ukraine.

The missiles had been intended for usage successful 3 upcoming operations, Ukraine said.

It added that further strikes took retired ample substance reserves intended for the aircraft.

Business Insider was incapable to independently corroborate the statement.

Before-and-after outer images of Engels-2 showed large, blackened craters and damaged bunkers arsenic of March 21.

The region's governor, Roman Busargin, said the onslaught was the largest to day successful the region.

While Russian authorities typically bash not springiness retired numbers of strikes, Busargin said that 54 Ukrainian drones had been changeable down successful the attack.

The March 20 strike, astir 450 miles distant from unoccupied Ukrainian territory, comes arsenic portion of Kyiv's run to degrade the Russian subject and vigor infrastructure that fuels the warfare effort.

It was the latest successful a drawstring of attacks that targeted the base.

In January, Ukraine said it had conducted its "largest ever" onslaught connected Russian subject facilities, hitting an lipid retention installation for refueling the planes astatine Engels-2 successful the process. That was its 2nd onslaught connected Engels successful a week.

More recently, a apt drone onslaught acceptable ablaze the Kavkazskaya lipid pumping presumption successful Russia's Krasnodar Krai for a afloat week, putting it retired of enactment for the foreseeable future.

Ukraine said that the onslaught connected Engels-2 took retired a chunk of Russian firepower, but subject analysts person agelong warned that, contempt sanctions, Russia has fewer barriers erstwhile it comes to resupplying itself with missiles.

Analysis of Russian cruise rocket strikes amusement that Moscow has launched up to 223 missiles a period against Ukrainian targets since precocious 2022.

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