Ukraine has widened its campaign of long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory, targeting strategic aviation infrastructure, fuel supplies and logistics in what is becoming an increasingly systematic effort to erode Moscow’s capacity to sustain its war.
Ukraine’s General Staff said overnight strikes hit the Engels air base in Saratov Oblast, one of Russia’s most important strategic bomber facilities and home to Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft that have repeatedly launched cruise missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.
While Kyiv did not specify what had been damaged, it confirmed a fire had broken out at the installation.
The attack formed part of a broader wave of drone strikes across western and central Russia. Ukrainian forces also targeted the Saratov oil refinery, one of the Volga region’s largest refining complexes, capable of processing around seven million tonnes of crude annually and regarded as an important supplier to Russia’s military-industrial sector.
The General Staff separately reported strikes on the Lyudinovskaya oil depot in Kaluga Oblast and a drone operations site near Navlya in Bryansk Oblast.
A spectacular day for Ukraine's Armed Forces, as Russia's lack of air defenses allowed for the destruction of a wide variety of targets across the country.
In a blitz of strikes in today morning hours, Ukraine struck the Engels-2 airbase, refineries in Saratov and Ufa and… pic.twitter.com/xfTuz6bMMp
— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) August 2, 2026
Russian officials said two people were killed and civilian infrastructure was damaged in Saratov and Engels, although Kyiv has not commented on those claims.
The strikes illustrate how Ukraine is increasingly seeking to impose economic as well as military costs on Russia. Rather than concentrating solely on frontline positions, Kyiv has expanded its focus to refineries, fuel depots, logistics hubs and drone infrastructure, aiming to disrupt the supply chains underpinning Moscow’s military operations.
Reports from Russian monitoring channels also indicated that a warehouse operated by Wildberries in Samara Oblast caught fire following a drone strike. The company has attracted growing attention after its online marketplace listed military-related equipment, while its banking subsidiary was sanctioned by the European Union in July over its contribution to Russia’s state revenues.
Coming days after another strike on a petrochemical plant in Tatarstan, the latest attacks suggest Ukraine is maintaining a sustained campaign designed to stretch Russia’s air defences, complicate military logistics and steadily raise the economic cost of a protracted war.
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