Engels-2

I, I think a good thing would do, Jason, you've, you've got the language capability to look at it.

How many base commanders has Engels 2 Air Base had in the last three years? I bet, I bet it's 10.

[laughs]

Because every time that gets hit, somebody comes in and goes, "Colonel, come with me-

[laughs]

... into this black van," right? Uh, okay, and some, some equipment can disperse, like they've sent Tu-95 bombers, you know, east of the Caspian Sea.

But, uh, large industrial complexes, they, obviously, they, they can't move, and that changes how much protection each asset needs, right? So Engels 2 is worth protecting when there are strategic aviation platforms there.

When they're not there, yeah, okay, what's, what's to protect? But Ukraine is monitoring everything, right? They know when the planes move.

Stalin agreed.

Within weeks, women were arriving at Engels Air Base in the Saratov region.

They came from everywhere.

Mathematicians from Moscow University, student pilots barely out of their teens, instructors with thousands of hours, factory workers who had spent their weekends at the local air club.

Kerosene to the aviation bases in Krasnodar, he went on, the ones that send the glide bombs.

And again, Will today was explaining about why, I think it's Saratov, why Saratov refinery, which is in the 23rd largest refinery, but why it matters because it's opposite Engels Air Base and strategically important there.

So that's why Ukraine keeps on hitting it.

So that really helps us.

Now into Russia, and Ukrainian drones reportedly struck the Saratov Oil Refinery, that's five hundred Ks east of Ukraine, again.

In the area as well, locals are reporting a lot of air de- air defense activity in the, in vicinity of the nearby Engels 2 military air base.

Now, that's the home of Russia's big strategic bombers, the big Tupolevs, but I've not seen that, uh, corroborated anywhere else.

Elsewhere in Russia, go over to Kursk Oblast, a pair of Russian Su-35 fighters reportedly collided yesterday.

You know what I mean? Russian nuclear bomber commander who is accused of ordering a strike on Ukrainian children's hospital was shot in the head in a suspected drive-by attempt on his life on Thursday.

The commander who is in charge of Putin's nuclear-capable strategic bombers at the nearby Engels Air Base is blamed by Ukrainian security services for multiple atrocities during the conflict.

So like the charges are kind of racking up here for him.

The major general suspected of involvement in an April 28th attack on Oman that killed 24 people.

But what does Russia sacrifice in order to keep this remaining aircraft available, Chuck?

Well, every air defense asset that is vectored to Engels 2 and to our Russian listening guests, I don't think you can ever have enough air defense there because you're getting clocked.

And let's take a brief detour here.

Ukraine has visually confirmed that it's hit 8 to 11, let's call it 10 TU-95s.

That includes the spiderweb operations, which again took place against Engels and other places.

Russia says it's got 47 TU-95s on paper.

By the way, those aircraft are much older than I am.

You have one of the drones draws out the fire of the, uh, Russian anti-drone, uh, uh, surface-to-air, uh, equipment, and then the other FP-2 comes in, and you can see that, uh, right there for yourself.

Um, take a look right here, the Russian air defense rockets, uh, almost taking out a cameraman in the morning near the Engels-2 air base that we talked about as Ukraine targeted the strategic bomber fleet.

Hat tip to my buddy Jane Key for getting this.

Let's play it.