Tu-22M3
The Tu-22M (NATO reporting name "Backfire") is a Soviet-era supersonic, variable-sweep wing bomber that entered service with the Soviet Air Forces in the 1970s. The Tu-22M3, the most produced modernised variant, remains in service with Russia's Aerospace Forces (VKS) and is used for long-range strikes with Kh-22 cruise missiles and other guided weapons. The aircraft has been a notable asset of Russia's strategic bomber fleet and has been used in strikes during the war in Ukraine.
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Assassination attempt on Russian general in Engels days after Ukraine notified him of suspicion over Okhmatdyt strike
An unknown assailant on a motorcycle shot and critically wounded a Russian Aerospace Forces officer on the morning of 3 September in the settlement of Probuzhdeniye near Engels, Saratov Oblast. Russian media identified the victim as Major General Mykola Varpakhovych, commander of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. The attack came three days after Ukraine's SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General notified Varpakhovych in absentia of suspicion in connection with the July 2024 missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv.