- Ukraine's Forces of Unmanned Systems struck Su-57 fighters and a Su-34 at Shagol airfield in Russia's Chelyabinsk region on April 25, 2026.
- The targets were approximately 1,700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, with damage degree still being assessed per Ukraine's General Staff.
Ukraine struck Russian Su-57 Felon stealth fighters and a Su-34 Fullback strike aircraft deep inside Russian territory, at Shagol airfield in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, approximately 1,700 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the strike, attributing it to the Forces of Unmanned Systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The announcement stated that several Su-57 fighters and one Su-34 fighter-bomber were hit at Shagol airfield. The degree of damage is still being assessed, the General Staff said, but the strike was described as confirmed results of measures to reduce the enemy’s ability to strike civilian targets on Ukrainian territory.
The statement closed with a pointed message: “More to follow.”
Open-source intelligence analysts examining satellite imagery independently confirmed the strike on Shagol airfield. The Exilenova+ community published photographs and provided visual confirmation of damage to Su-57 and Su-34 aircraft at the location, supporting the Ukrainian military’s claims with imagery analysis consistent with an attack on the airfield’s aircraft parking areas.
The Su-57 is Russia’s most advanced combat aircraft — a fifth-generation stealth fighter that Moscow has promoted as the centerpiece of its modernized air power. Designed to compete with the American F-22 and F-35, the Su-57 incorporates low-observable shaping, advanced avionics, and internal weapons bays intended to reduce radar cross-section. Russia has used the aircraft during the war in Ukraine, according to Russian officials’ own statements, primarily in a standoff capacity — launching cruise missiles from positions well within Russian airspace where Ukrainian air defenses cannot reach. Keeping the Su-57 out of harm’s way has been central to how Russia has employed the platform, which exists in limited numbers and represents an irreplaceable element of Russian aerospace capability.
That calculus shifted on April 25. Shagol airfield is not a frontline base — it sits in the Chelyabinsk region, in the southern Urals, more than 1,700 kilometers from Ukraine’s eastern border. That distance represents a new threshold in Ukraine’s demonstrated long-range strike capability with unmanned systems. Previous Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian airfields have reached deep into Russian territory, but Chelyabinsk — a major industrial city east of the Ural Mountains, closer to Kazakhstan than to Ukraine — represents a reach that few military analysts would have projected for Ukrainian unmanned systems operating from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The Su-34 hit in the same strike is a capable platform in its own right. The Su-34 is Russia’s primary dedicated strike aircraft, a twin-seat, twin-engine supersonic aircraft designed for precision ground attack and anti-ship missions. Russia has used Su-34s extensively throughout the war in Ukraine to deliver guided and unguided munitions against Ukrainian targets, and the fleet has absorbed significant losses from Ukrainian air defenses and long-range strikes. Each Su-34 lost or seriously damaged represents a meaningful reduction in Russia’s precision strike capacity.
The Su-57’s vulnerability to Ukrainian drone strikes is not a new problem for Russia, but its recurrence at this distance is. Prior open-source reporting has documented that Russia has suffered losses to its Su-57 fleet from Ukrainian drone attacks — one Su-57 was previously destroyed and two additional aircraft sustained damage in separate earlier attacks on Russian territory. The April 25 strike at Shagol, if it caused significant damage to multiple Su-57 airframes, would represent a substantial additional blow to a program that Russia produces in very small numbers. Unlike the Su-34, which exists in larger quantities, the Su-57 fleet is small enough that each aircraft lost or damaged materially affects Russia’s advanced aviation capability.
Shagol’s significance goes beyond the aircraft parked there. Chelyabinsk is a major Russian defense industrial city, home to tank production and other heavy defense manufacturing. The airfield at Shagol serves as a base for aircraft operating in the region and as a training and maintenance hub. A Ukrainian drone strike reaching that location signals that Russian aviation assets staged at what Moscow likely considered safely distant rear-area bases are no longer beyond Ukrainian reach.