Ukrainian Liutyi long-range unmanned aerial vehicle attacked the Mozdok air base in North Ossetia in the afternoon of June 8th. Although the distance to the airfield is not a record-breaking — just about 720 km from the current frontline — this is the first Ukraine's attack on this airfield where russian invasion forces keep their Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and, sometimes, MiG-31K interceptors: the exclusive carriers of the Kh-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
At the moment, it is impossible to say how successful the attack was. Defense Intelligence of Ukraine confirmed to Suspilne media that they have carried out the attack, and the results are being investigated.
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Defense Express notes that traditionally, there is no air defense equipment in the rear regions of russia. Even in the footage from the scene, all that can be heard is small arms fire at the drone.
What's more interesting is the official statement from the governor of the North Ossetia–Alania administrative entity, Sergey Menyaylo, who informed on his social media that three Ukrainian drones were allegedly shot down by air defense forces. Meanwhile, local communities have already published photos of the collected wreckage, including six aircraft engines.
Worth noting, for a kamikaze drone in general, it is logical to just fall and explode, and when it happens, the engine is usually blown away by the blast in one piece.The photo shows precisely the engines damaged by explosions. Moreover, on the part of Defense Express, we can provide a reference photo of a real downed Liutyi drone: evidently, it suffered a much lower degree of fragmentation after crashing into the ground.
Moreover, the same Menyaylo, despite the fact that he initially reported all Ukrainian drones were downed, later wrote that "insignificant destruction and ignition were recorded." For some reason, dealing with these consequences necessitated creating an operational headquarters and even canceling all mass events.
Anyway, for now there's no information in regard to whether the russian valuable aircraft were hit. Although we can note that as of April, satellite imagery showed six Tu-22M3 bombers, four Su-24 tactical aircraft, and approximately 20 helicopters of various types in Mozdok. In addition, MiG-31Ks had permanent deployment bases set at this airfield in January this year.
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