Latest news with #Tu-160s
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Has Russia Moved Strategic Aviation Nearer to Alaska? What We Know
Russia has likely not moved one of its nuclear-capable heavy bombers further from Ukraine, analysts and satellite imagery indicate after reports suggested Moscow had transferred one of its hefty Tu-160 supersonic aircraft closer to Alaska following extensive Ukrainian strikes on Russian airfields. Ukraine said it hit 41 of Russia's expensive, hard-to-replace warplanes on June 1 in a meticulously timed operation across three different time zones using drones smuggled over the border. Ukrainian outlet Defence Express reported on Thursday that Russia had relocated one of its Tu-160 strategic bombers to the Anadyr airfield in Russia's far eastern Chukotka region, citing satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel satellites on June 4. Satellite imagery provided to Newsweek by Planet Labs, captured of Anadyr on May 26 - prior to the audacious Ukrainian strikes - showed three aircraft lined up on the main apron. The image, while low quality, does not indicate the presence of the distinctively shaped Tu-160s, analysts said. A separate image from June 3 showed four aircraft on the main apron of the base, but none of the aircraft - including the one that appeared since May 26 - appear to be the world's heaviest operational bomber, experts told Newsweek. It is fairly standard practice for militaries to move aircraft around and may not indicate anything more than a "sensible approach to looking after your aircraft," said Frank Ledwidge, a senior lecturer in Law and War Studies at Portsmouth University in the U.K. and a former British military intelligence officer. Under the New START Treaty limiting nuclear weapons, strategic bombers have to be kept out in the open, Ledwidge added. Russia will likely move around its aircraft more following the success of the Ukrainian strikes, retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, a former senior commander in the U.K.'s Royal Air Force, told Newsweek. Kyiv said after the strikes, it had targeted at least one of Moscow's scarce A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft and several long-range, nuclear-capable bombers across four air bases thousands of miles apart. Russia reported drone assaults on five bases, including strikes on a long-range aviation hub in the country's far east that Kyiv did not publicly acknowledge. One Ukrainian official said 13 aircraft had been destroyed. Satellite imagery from the Siberian air base of Belaya and Olenya, an Arctic base in Murmansk-just two of the targeted bases-showed several destroyed Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers. Ukraine said it had also attacked the Ivanovo airbase northeast of Moscow and Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region. The Belaya airfield sits just shy of 3,000 miles from Ukraine. At least six Russian Tu-95MS and four Tu-22M3 aircraft appear to have been destroyed, Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow for airpower at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said in recent days. While unlikely to hack away at how many aerial assaults Russia can mount on Ukraine, the simultaneous strikes known as Operation Spiderweb caused roughly $7 billion in damage, according to Kyiv, and exposed how vulnerable airfields and their aircraft now are to drone strikes while landing an embarrassing slap on the Kremlin. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "very strongly" insisted he would retaliate for the strikes. The main base in Russian territory where the operation was masterminded was "directly next to" an FSB regional headquarters, Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said as he praised the "brilliant" operation. Russia's FSB domestic security agency is the main descendant of the Soviet-era KGB. Russia used a Tu-160 in intensive overnight missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said on Friday. Moscow fired more than 400 attack drones, six ballistic missiles, 38 cruise missiles and one anti-radar air-to-surface missile at the war-torn country overnight, according to the air force. Ukraine's military separately said on Friday it had hit Dyagilevo in fresh strikes and the Engels long-range aviation hub in the Saratov region. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email. Related Articles G7 Invite for Modi Signals India's Growing Weight for Democratic AllianceRussia Offers Political Asylum to Elon Musk Over Trump FeudRussia Reacts to Trump's 'Young Children Fighting' CommentUS Demands 'End' to Military Cooperation Between North Korea and Russia 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Irish Daily Star
6 days ago
- Business
- Irish Daily Star
Trump mysteriously deletes Truth Social post minutes after warning of imminent Putin attack
Donald Trump caused confusion on Wednesday afternoon after deleting a Truth Social post about a phone call with Vladimir Putin - only to repost it again about an hour later. The post remained visible on the White House X account throughout, but vanished from his Truth Social page for just over an hour. Trump said that he spoke on the phone with Putin for about an hour and 15 minutes, speaking about the recent attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war . Trump said "it was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace." Read More Related Articles Ivanka Trump subtly shades dad as she supports President's nemesis Read More Related Articles Karoline Leavitt left red-faced after humiliating press conference fail "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields," Trump wrote. The post has now been reposted to Trump's Truth Social (Image: Truth Social) Trump added that the two also discussed Iran. "I just finished speaking, by telephone, with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia. The call lasted approximately one hour and 15 minutes. We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides," the post read. "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields. We also discussed Iran, and the fact that time is running out on Iran's decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly! I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement," the post continued. "President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion. It is my opinion that Iran has been slowwaking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a ver short period of time!" the post concluded. The call, confirmed by both Trump and the Kremlin, followed Ukraine's dramatic launch of Operation Spider Web. The mission was a long-range, AI-guided drone offensive that destroyed or damaged at least 41 Russian military aircraft, according to Kyiv's intelligence services. Targets included strategic bombers such as Tu-95s, Tu-160s, and Tu-22s, aircraft capable of carrying nuclear payloads. The strikes, which reached deep into Russian territory, have been hailed in Ukraine as a strategic triumph. But in Moscow, the embarrassment has boiled over into fury. In a video conference with top Russian officials, Putin denounced Ukraine's attacks as 'terrorist acts,' pointing specifically to recent sabotage operations on railway lines in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk regions. He warned that conditions were not good to peace negotiations, suggesting instead that Ukraine was stalling to rearm and regroup. 'How can any such (summit) meetings be conducted in such circumstances? What shall we talk about?' he asked. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swiftly responded, calling Russia's proposed ceasefire terms 'an ultimatum' and branding the Istanbul negotiations as 'artificial diplomacy.' For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here . 'The same ultimatums they voiced back then — now they just put them on paper ... Honestly, this document looks like spam. It's spam meant to flood us and create the impression that they're doing something,' Zelenskyy said. While Ukraine presses for a US-mediated ceasefire ahead of any direct leader summit, Putin remains dismissive. For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Aiming ‘Left Of The Boom,' Drones Blow Up Munitions Stocks In Russia
Engels explodes. The overnight drone raid on the Russian air force's Engels bomber base in southern Russia, 300 miles from the front line in Ukraine, apparently ignited the sprawling base's huge stock of munitions and triggered a succession of explosions that blew the roofs off of homes in the surrounding community. The devastating raid, the third in a 10-week series targeting Engels and its bomber regiments, may have destroyed some of the cruise missiles that Russian bombers—including Tupolev Tu-95s and Tu-160s—routinely fire at Ukrainian cities. In that sense, the Engels raids represent yet another attempt by Ukrainian forces to get 'left of the boom,' to borrow U.S. Army slang. To prevent roadside bomb ambushes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Americans learned to get ahead of the problem and hunt down the men who built and distributed the bombs. They aimed to get 'left' of an attack on a left-to-right timeline. Struggling to intercept Russian bombs, missiles and drones in the moments before they strike—in part due to a shortage of the best American- and European-made air-defense missiles—the Ukrainians are also aiming left of the boom. More Ukrainian drone and missile strikes are targeting drone factories, munitions warehouses and aviation fuel depots on Russian soil. On or just before March 13, long-range attack drones belonging to the Ukrainian defense intelligence agency struck a hidden drone manufacturing facility in Obukhovo, just outside Moscow 300 miles from the border with Ukraine. And in April, Ukraine sortied one of its then-new Aeroprakt A-22 sport plane drones to strike a drone plant in Yelabuga, 550 miles east of Moscow. The apparent target: ammo stores at Engels. The utter failure of Russian air defenses to adapt to the threat from small drones makes Ukraine's preemptive strikes possible. What appeared to be an eight-foot-long UkrSpecSystems PD-1 drone was spotted flying low over Saratov around just before or after Engels exploded. The PD-1 may have delivered a small explosive payload as part of the strike. Or it may have conducted surveillance on behalf of the attack drone crews. Either way, it motored unmolested over one of the Russian air force's most important bases. Gaps in Russian and Ukrainian air defenses are the untold story behind Russia's ongoing bombardment of Ukrainian cities and Ukraine's left-of-boom drone raids meant to blunt the bombardment. With just six U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries and two European-made SAMP/T batteries, Ukraine can't protect all of its population centers. It has no choice but to target the Russian bombers' fuel and munitions. But the air base raids are only as successful as Russia's own air defenses are unsuccessful.
