A photo circulating on social media appears to show a destroyed Russian bomber, as the Kremlin said “minor damage” was inflicted on an aircraft as a result of a drone strike at an air base on Monday.

The image, published by Ukraine’s Air Force, purportedly shows damage to a Tu-22M3 bomber in the Dyagilevo airfield near the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. The image has also been doing the rounds on unofficial military Telegram channels based in Ukraine as well as Russia.

The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for strikes on two Russian air bases—at the Engels-2 air base in Saratov located some 600 kilometers (about 375 miles) east of Ukraine, and near Ryazan, on Monday.

Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-22M3 military aircrafts fly over Red Square during a military parade, marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow on June 24, 2020. The Kremlin said “minor damage” was inflicted on an aircraft as a result of a drone strike at an air base on Monday.
Getty Images/PAVEL GOLOVKIN/POOL/AFP

Kyiv hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attacks but has celebrated them. The New York Times cited a senior Ukrainian official on Monday as saying that the drones used in the strikes were launched from Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine’s Air Force tweeted two images purportedly showing damage to a fuel tanker and the Tu-22M3 bomber. Blood can be seen underneath the image showing the fuel tanker.

“Ryazan, russia. What happened?” the air force wrote in a caption.

Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine on Monday of carrying out the two attacks with Soviet-era jet drones “in order to disable Russian long-range aircraft.”

“The air defense of the Russian Aerospace Forces intercepted these Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude,” it said.

The ministry said two aircraft were damaged as a result of the strikes, while three Russian military personnel were killed and four more were wounded. There was “minor damage” to the coating of a plane, it added.

But the image circulating on social media paints a different picture. A portion of the back of an aircraft appears to have been torn off in the blast.

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the images and has contacted Russia’s defense and foreign ministries for comment.

On Tuesday morning, a third Russian airfield was reportedly targeted in a separate drone attack.

Roman Starovoyt, governor of the Kursk region near the northeastern Ukrainian border, said an oil tanker caught fire at an airbase in the region but didn’t immediately blame Ukraine for the attack.

“There were no casualties. The fire is localized. All intelligence agencies are on site,” Starovoyt wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that he had convened a meeting of the “anti-terrorist commission” and that the level of terrorist danger in Kursk would remain at a high or “yellow” level for 15 days.

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

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