The Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SZBU) struck a Tu-95MS strategic bomber in Engels, Russia, announced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Facebook on Friday.
Ukraine’s leader also confirmed that Ukrainian units attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region and several targets in the Black Sea.
“In the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s defense forces struck an oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region. The distance is a thousand kilometers from the front line. In the Black Sea, too, we have given our own just answers to the Russian war. In Engels, Russia, soldiers of the SZBU Alpha unit struck a Tu-95MS strategic bomber aircraft. It is precisely with such aircraft that strikes are carried out against Ukraine,” wrote Zelensky in his post.
Pro-Ukrainian accounts on X celebrated the destruction of the plane.
Ukrainian Forces has taken out another of Russia's long-range strategic bombers, after overnight strikes on the Engels-2 airbase, 700km distance from Ukraine.
Mostly being constructed back in the 1960's-1970's, Russia's rapidly vanishing bomber fleet had only recently lost… pic.twitter.com/YD3e5QPgXC
— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) August 28, 2026Other posters on X showed a satellite photo of the Russian plane, which showed a wing was damaged in the attack.
✈️🔥 A TU-95MS strategic bomber was hit at Engels-2 airfield tonight. pic.twitter.com/nJdOgf78fn
— MAKS 26 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) August 28, 2026Operation Spiderweb in June 2025 is widely considered Ukraine’s most ambitious strike on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. After 18 months of planning, the SBU smuggled 117 FPV drones into Russia inside wooden cabins mounted on trucks. The trucks were parked near several airbases. The roofs of the vehicles were remotely opened and the drones were guided to their targets, which included Olenya , Belaya , Dyagilevo, and Ivanovo.
Ukraine claimed 41 aircraft were hit, including Tu-95s, Tu-22M3s, at least one Tu-160, and A-50 airborne early-warning planes, representing about 34 percent of Russia’s strategic cruise-missile carriers and causing roughly $7 billion in damage.
Independent satellite analysis and NATO assessments confirmed 10–13 aircraft destroyed and around 20–40 damaged. Visual evidence showed burning Tu-95s and Tu-22M3s on the tarmac.
The latest attack reveals that these Russian bombers still remain high-profile targets for Ukraine. Russia still appears unable to fully shield its fleet from drone and missile strikes despite moving many of these planes farther east in the country.
The Tu-95 itself is a four-engine turboprop design first produced by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It is still used because no modern replacement is in series production.
