This conclusion can be drawn from satellite images dated by December 7 of this year, which were published by OSINT analist MT_Anderson on his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Engels-2 Air Base50cm from 7 December 2024, 11:31 UTCFirst time since the full scale invasion started that I've seen a substantial presence of fighters at Engels-2Appears to be 9x Su-34 & 2x Su-27/30 (experts?)A few Tu-95 & Tu-160 along with the decoys also visible pic.twitter.com/F6IEAC2ewA— MT Anderson (@MT_Anderson) December 7, 2024
In particular, several bombers are currently located at the airfield - at least two Tu-160s and one mock-up / image of the aircraft, as well as four Tu-95MS and three mock-ups / images of the aircraft of this type.
Read more: New Footage Reveals Devastating ATACMS Strikes on russian S-400 System
In addition, three military transport aircraft were recorded on satellite images: one An-12 and two Il-76. But most importantly, nine Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft can be identified in the images, as well as two Su-27/30 fighter jets.
For comparison, in September of this year, fewer aircraft were seen at Engels-2 airbase, and these were mainly bombers (Tu-22, Tu-95 and Tu-160) as well as probably the same An-12 transport aircraft.
Judging by the appearance of Su-34 aircraft at this airfield, we can conclude that, with a high probability, the russians decided to hide their valuable Su-34 supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber aircraft at Engels-2 airfield, which is located approximately 600 km (370 miles) from the border with Ukraine, after the US gave the "green light" to strike long-range weapons directly at the territory of the Russian Federation, including ATACMS missiles earlier this year.
Defense Express reported earlier, that Biden Allowed Ukraine to Use ATACMS For Strikes Inside russia. We also wrote, that Missile Fragments Discovered in Lotaryovka Confirm Strategic Targeting of the ATACMS Missiles on Kursk.
Read more: ATACMS Strikes in russia — Check, Now Ukraine Needs To Start Talking the PrSM 500-km Missile
