It was around one o'clock on Sunday morning when residents on the edge of Maykop, in Russia's Republic of Adygea, heard the drone engines. Then came the air defence fire, and then the explosions. By daylight, Ukraine's Security Service was claiming that two of Russia's most valuable combat jets had been hit on the ground, roughly 500 kilometres from the front.

The target was Khanskaya air base, a few kilometres outside Maykop. According to the SBU, its drones struck a Su-35 multirole fighter, a Su-34 fighter-bomber and an ammunition depot on the airfield.

Both aircraft types share one job that matters enormously to Ukraine: they carry the heavy glide bombs that Russia's Aerospace Forces drop on Ukrainian positions and cities from beyond the reach of most air defences.

A 500-kilometre night flight

The strike was carried out by the SBU's Special Operations Center "A", better known as Alpha, the unit behind many of Ukraine's long-range drone raids into Russia. The SBU announced it on Sunday in a short statement.

Local monitoring channels in Maykop reported drone noise, air defence activity and secondary explosions overnight. By Sunday evening, satellite images showing damage on the airfield were circulating online, and Ukrainian outlets including New Voice of Ukraine and Censor.net published them on Monday. Russia's Ministry of Defence has not commented on any aircraft losses at Khanskaya, and the extent of the damage to the two jets cannot be independently confirmed.

That caution matters. Drone strikes on airfields are now routine in this war, and claims of "destroyed" aircraft are sometimes revised to "damaged" once better imagery appears. What is not in doubt is that Ukrainian drones reached an airbase deep in southern Russia and set things on fire.

Why these two jets

The Su-34 is a heavy, twin-engine strike aircraft with two crew sitting side by side. Since 2023 it has been the workhorse of Russia's glide-bomb campaign, lobbing UMPK-kitted bombs, the Russian KABs, from tens of kilometres away. The Su-35 is a single-seat, twin-engine air superiority fighter, but it also escorts the bombers and can carry guided weapons itself. The SBU stressed that both types are built to deliver guided aerial bombs against the front line and Ukrainian cities.

Shooting these aircraft down in the air is extremely difficult, because they release their weapons from well outside the range of most Ukrainian air defences. Hitting them on the ground is the next best thing. Every jet damaged on a ramp is one fewer platform for the bombs that have levelled entire districts of Ukrainian frontline towns.

Not the first visit

Khanskaya has been on Ukraine's target list for a while. In October 2024, the SBU said its drones hit the base and destroyed a fuel depot there, and the airfield has been attacked again since. What has changed is the reach and precision. Ukraine is now routinely striking airbases hundreds of kilometres inside Russia, and Russian aircraft parked in the open are paying for it.

For Russia, the lesson is the same one it keeps being taught. Without hardened shelters, a fighter worth tens of millions of dollars can be knocked out by a drone that costs a tiny fraction of that. For Ukraine, Sunday was a cheap and very public win.

Ukrainian broadcaster Fakty ICTV reports on the SBU drone strike on the Khanskaya air base (in Ukrainian).

Sources: Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukrinform, Kyiv Post, Ukrainska Pravda, New Voice of Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent