For years Russia has been building shelters, decoy aircraft and concrete bunkers to hide its strategic bombers. And once again, a single drone that flew around 800 kilometres turned all of it into scrap iron.

Satellite images from 19 July confirmed that a Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber was destroyed at the Engels-2 military base in the Saratov region. According to sources, Ukraine's security service carried out the operation with long-range drones on 16 July. The images show two Tu-95MS bombers, one with its tail completely torn off. The fire spread through the fuselage and reached the internal bay where cruise missiles are stored.

The damage is such that the aircraft can no longer be repaired. And here is the point Moscow does not want to say out loud: the Tu-95MS is a Soviet design that has long stopped being produced. Every downed example is a loss with nothing to replace it. This is not a tank that will roll out of a factory in a few months.

The Tu-95MS is the main platform from which Russia launches H-101 cruise missiles beyond the reach of Ukrainian air defence. In other words, every such bomber is part of the machine that has been hitting Ukrainian cities for months. According to the Oryx analysis project, Russia has lost at least ten such aircraft since the start of the war, nearly all destroyed while sitting quietly parked at their bases.

And the Engels-2 base really did try to protect itself. Satellite images from June showed at least seventeen reinforced shelters built specifically for these bombers. And despite all of it, the aircraft that was hit stayed exposed on an open runway. Millions invested in concrete, and the plane parked outside like a car in front of a shop.

The message is bigger than one burned-out bomber. Russia's strategic aviation, the pride of its military, remains vulnerable hundreds of kilometres deep inside its own territory. When a drone that costs a fraction of the price of a bomber can set that very bomber alight on a home runway, the question is not whether it will happen again, but when.