Air raid alerts were activated across Ukraine around 6 am on Wednesday. At the time, the Ukrainian Air Force had already monitored a fleet of Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers for three hours. The planes came from Olenya Air Base south of Murmansk and flew into attack positions at safe distance from Ukrainian air space. 

When over the Saratov region and the Caspian Sea, the group of Tu-95MS started to launch deadly loads of weapons. Several waves of strikes followed with cruise missiles targeting Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Pavlovgrad, Poltava and Kharkiv oblast, the Air Force reported via Telegram.

“A high-speed missile to Kyiv! Urgently in shelter!” - Ukrainian Air Force message at 06.46 am. 

Journalists with the Kyiv Independent who were on the ground reported explosions rocketing the skies above the capital. Later on Wednesday, the city’s military administration said at least four people were killed and at least 38 injured.

The four people found dead were found under the rubble of a damaged building in the Holosiivskyi district, the Kyiv Independent reported. Russia appears to be attacking civilian targets on purpose.

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Olenya Air Base has this winter become the main airfield from where Russia’s strategic aviation forces take off when bombing Ukraine. The horrific scenes all around Ukraine on February 7 were not the first attack this winter. The Barents Observer reported about attacks led by planes from Olenya Air Base on May 18 and December 29 last year and on January 2 and January 9 this year. 

Located inside the Arctic Circle, the airbase is as far from Ukraine as it is possible to come in the European part of Russia.

It was last spring the strategic air forces relocated more than 10 Tu-95M and Tu-160 long-range bombers to Olenya. The move came after Engels Air Base in Saratov region was hit by Ukrainian drones.

Olenya is 1,800 km north of Russia’s border with Ukraine. 

Satellite images show several larger weapon storage facilities at and near the air base. Of particular interest is the unloading facility a stone’s throw from the southern end of the 3,500-meter runway. The Sentinel-2 images recently show activities and Google Earth images from last summer detail the infrastructure.

The facility is on a side track from the main October Railway running from Petrozavodsk to Murmansk.

Fenced off with high triple barbed wire, the military cargo wagons line up at the platform. Cruise missiles and warheads are unloaded and transported further to the storage houses at the airport from where they are made ready for the Tu-95 planes. 

It is believed that each plane can carry four to six cruise missiles.