Ukraine-linked saboteurs have hit two planes and a helicopter at a high security airfield near Moscow.

The audacious strike damaged several aircraft at the Chkalovsky Air Base where Vladimir Putin keeps an Il-80 Maxdome ‘Doomsday aircraft’ his air force would deploy in the event of nuclear war.

Damage was inflicted on both an An-148 and Il-20 aircraft, as well as one Mi-28N helicopter, used earlier to down strike drones in the Moscow region, after saboteurs reportedly planted explosives in a major security breach at the air base 20 miles north west of Moscow.

Chkalovsky hosts Putin’s distinctive planes designed for use to command and control a nuclear war from the skies and is also home to some of Russia’s most sensitive reconnaissance planes.

The sabotage comes just hours after a kamikaze drone strike caused a massive explosion and inferno at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi where Vladimir Putin has his official summer residence on the Black Sea. 

Moment of the 20 September 2023 drone strike at a fuel depot in Sochi. A drone can be seen slamming into the fuel tank

The drone can be seen slamming into the fuel tank and immediately igniting a huge blaze in the strike which was heard ‘like a clap of thunder’ by Sochi residents at around 5am

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate shared footage of the attack on the airbase

An An-148 plane was among those damaged in the sabotage

A Mi-28N was also taken out of action along with a Il-20 military plane

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting of the Russian Military-Industrial Commission in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023

The embarrassing attack on the airbase close to Moscow was claimed today by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine.

‘The event caused quite a bit of hysteria in the higher [Russian] military corridors – government planes, so-called ”Doomsday planes” and special [reconnaissance] aircraft are based at the airfield,’ said the post from Kyiv’s military intelligence.

‘Unknown persons planted explosives and detonated an An-148 and Il-20 aircraft – both belong to the 354th special purpose aviation regiment at the airfield.

‘The saboteurs planted explosives and blew up the An-148 and Il-20 aircraft, as well as the Mi-28N helicopter, which had previously been actively involved in shooting down attack drones over the Moscow region,’ said another report.

The damage ‘will not allow them to be quickly restored’, the report said, but the Il-80 Maxdome is not thought to have been damaged. 

Though Ukraine has not yet claimed responsibility for the Sochi strike, it is believed to be the first time the seaside resort city has been targeted by a kamikaze drone.

In slowed-down CCTV footage, the drone can be seen slamming into the fuel tank and immediately igniting a huge blaze in the strike which was heard ‘like a clap of thunder’ by Sochi residents at around 5am.

Pictures from the aftermath of the incident later revealed Russian investigators carrying the remains of the drone out of the debris for further investigation. 

Dozens of firefighters were called to the scene to tackle the blaze, according to Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev who did not make any mention of the drone strike.

‘More than 60 [firefighters] and 15 pieces of equipment are working on site,’ he said.

‘There is no threat of fire spreading. The reasons for the incident are being clarified.’

The blazing tank contained 1,200 tons of diesel, according to a local media report.

‘There were no casualties,’ the mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said on the Telegram messaging platform.

‘The airport and the entire transport system are operating as normal.’

The Il-80 Maxdome aircraft, which operates as an airborne command centre and can coordinate nuclear attacks, is not thought to have been damaged in the hit on the airbase

Dozens of firefighters tackled the blaze in the early hours

Emergency responders are seen working to extinguish the fire at the depot

Several armed Russian men dressed in military fatigues are seen carrying away debris of a drone that attacked Sochi fuel depot early on 20 September 2023

Viktor Alksnis, a Soviet military tactician and politician known as the Black Colonel, immediately suggested Ukraine was targeting Putin’s official residence Bocharov Ruchey, where the Kremlin leader met Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko at the weekend.

Putin, 70, routinely runs the Russian government from Sochi, visiting the city several times a year. Bocharov Ruchey is his official summer residence.

It is also the main base of his suspected lover Alina Kabaeva, 40, who presides over an elite gymnastics academy in the resort.

‘It seems that the favourite vacation spot of the President of the Russian Federation, the Bocharov Ruchey residence near Sochi, will become inaccessible for security reasons,’ he posted.

Putin, 70, routinely runs the Russian government from Sochi, visiting the city several times a year. Bocharov Ruchey (pictured) is his official summer residence

Huge plumes of black smoke trailed into the sky as the sun rose over Sochi this morning

Smoke rises over Sochi following the strike early this morning

Vladimir Putin in Bocharov Ruchei residence, Sochi, in summer 2015

War analyst, former Soviet politician Viktor Alksnis

‘Ukraine is conducting a real hunt for Putin.

‘If indeed in this case it was an attack by a Ukrainian drone, then the Bocharov Ruchey residence is already the third attempt to attack the official residences of the President of the Russian Federation with a UAV.

‘The first attack was on May 3 on the Kremlin, the second on September 5 at Zavidovo [Putin’s hunting palace in Tver region].’

Alksnis asked: ‘I wonder if these attacks on Putin’s residences will be regarded as crossing red lines?’

Sochi is some 420 miles from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory – a long distance for a drone.

But Ukrainian groups and Russian resistance groups have unleashed drones from inside Putin’s country.