Ukraine said on Friday (28) that it hit a nuclear-capable Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bomber at its home base. If confirmed, it would be the 12th loss of the model in the war, equal to 20% of the fleet Vladimir Putin had before the 2022 invasion, Brazil's Folha de S.Paulo reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky made the claim and credited the Alpha unit of the SBU, Ukraine's security service, a team known for long-range drone operations. He did not say how the strike was carried out. Russia has not commented.

So far the only public evidence is a large fire at the Engels-2 airfield, about 800 km (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border. A satellite photo of uncertain origin circulated online showing minor damage to the wing of a Tu-95 at the base, but the image does not match the smoke seen in video footage, according to Folha. The condition of the aircraft remains unconfirmed.

The target explains the play. The Tu-95MS is a four-engine turboprop that launches cruise missiles from long range, without entering Ukrainian airspace. Catching the plane on the ground, parked at its base, takes out the launch platform before it fires, and that is how Kyiv tries to cut off the bombing raids at the source.

Engels-2 is no ordinary target. The base hosts part of the Tu-95 fleet and all 14 of Russia's supersonic Tu-160s, its most modern bombers, along with vaults storing cruise missiles fitted with nuclear warheads. No damage to those facilities has been reported.

The base has been attacked before in the war, but it escaped last year's Operation Spider Web, when Ukrainian drones smuggled in trucks hit at least eight Tu-95s at five other Russian bases. Zelensky also confirmed overnight strikes on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the Yaroslavl region and on targets in the Black Sea, Ukraine's state agency Ukrinform reported.