Ukraine burns two Russian Tu-142 naval patrol planes in Taganrog

Ukrainian strike drones hit two Russian Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft on the ground at Taganrog military airfield on the night of May 29-30, 2026, with video released by Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces showing the aircraft catching fire after multiple direct hits, marking the latest in a sustained campaign to destroy Russian military aviation assets far from the front lines.

The Unmanned Systems Forces, Ukraine’s dedicated military branch established in 2024 to develop and command drone warfare across all domains, published footage of the operation showing FP-1/2 class strike drones approaching the parked aircraft at low altitude and striking them in sequence. The Tu-142s can be seen burning after the impacts.

The Tu-142, known to NATO by the reporting name Bear-F, is a Soviet-era maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft based on the Tu-95 strategic bomber airframe but adapted for ocean surveillance, submarine hunting, and maritime reconnaissance.

Russia’s Naval Aviation operates a small fleet of them from bases including Taganrog on the Azov Sea coast, using them to monitor naval activity across the Black Sea and adjacent waters. They carry acoustic and magnetic sensors for detecting submerged submarines, surface search radar, and communications relay equipment that gives them a secondary role supporting naval coordination. The aircraft are large, slow, and irreplaceable in any near-term timeframe: Russia has no current production line for the Tu-142, and each aircraft destroyed represents a capability loss that cannot be quickly replenished.

Taganrog has been a consistent target of Ukrainian deep-strike operations throughout the war. The city on the northern shore of the Azov Sea hosts the Beriev TANTK aircraft plant, which has been responsible for maintaining and modifying several of Russia’s most valuable aviation assets, including the A-50 airborne early warning aircraft and the A-60 airborne laser laboratory. In November 2025, a Ukrainian drone strike on the Beriev plant destroyed Russia’s sole remaining A-60 laser aircraft, an irreplaceable experimental platform that had been sitting at the facility since at least 2016. The 325th Aviation Repair Plant, which services a wide range of Russian military aircraft types including Tu-142 components, is also located in Taganrog and was struck during a May 27, 2026 Ukrainian operation that The Defence Blog reported as part of a simultaneous package also hitting Baltimor air base, the Black Sea Fleet aviation headquarters in Sevastopol, and the Tuapse oil terminal.