Russia Ups Defenses at Key Air Base Near Ukraine – Satellite Images

Russia has been strengthening defenses at the Millerovo air base in the Rostov region, near the Ukrainian border, by installing new air defense systems and constructing shelters to protect aircraft, according to satellite images analyzed by Radio Liberty.

The report suggests Moscow is taking these measures to ensure the continued use of military airfields near the border to allow it to continue strikes on Ukraine.

New S-300/400 air defense positions have been spotted at the airfield for the first time since October, while dispersed aircraft shelters have been built or are under construction, in ramp areas previously used to park aircraft in the open.

Andrey Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, commented on the airfield’s strategic significance.

“It is a key base for frontline [sic] aviation supporting Russian infantry in eastern and southern Ukraine,” he said.

Millerovo is home to Russia’s 31st Fighter Aviation Regiment, which operates Su-30SM (NATO: Flanker C) and Su-35 (NATO: Flanker E/M) fighter aircraft. Tactical aviation from this base is actively engaged in combat operations against Ukraine.

Brady Africk, an open-source analyst at the American Enterprise Institute wrote that similar hangar construction has been observed at Russia’s Belbek Airbase in occupied Crimea and Primorsko-Akhtarsk airfield in Krasnodar Krai.

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The commander of Ukraine’s 414th Strike UAV Battalion posted a video showing how a mobile radar detected the incoming UAV and sent its own kamikaze drones to bring it down.

“Russia is bolstering defenses for aircraft at several bases in response to Ukraine’s increasingly potent long-range strike capabilities,” Africk wrote on X.

Following Ukraine’s acquisition of US-supplied ATACMS missiles with a 300-kilometer (190-mile) range, Russia began relocating military aircraft from bases within their reach in the fall of 2024.

In September 2024, Radio Liberty analyzed satellite images of Russian air bases within 300 kilometers (190 miles) of the front lines and found many of them either abandoned or emptied - some since spring, others following successful Ukrainian drone strikes.

These included the airfields of Khalino, Eisk, Baltimore (Voronezh), Morozovsk, Millerovo, Kursk-Vostochny (Khalino), and Seshcha.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched a drone attack on the Millerovo military airfield on Dec. 23, according to Yuri Slyusar, the acting governor of Russia’s Rostov region. He stated that air defense systems intercepted eight drones near the airfield.

The Russian Ministry of Defense later claimed that a total of nine drones had been shot down across the region and reported no casualties.

Local Telegram channels, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the attack caused a fire on one of Millerovo’s streets and damaged a building belonging to the Miller Cossack Cadet Vocational College. Students were evacuated from their dormitories, and air raid sirens were activated in Taganrog and Rostov-on-Don.

According to the Militarnyi media outlet, footage released by the garrison’s military showed explosions at the airfield and troops repelling the attack with small arms.

The footage was used to geolocate the approximate point of the UAV strike, which is believed to have been a technical and operational facility responsible for aircraft maintenance and repairs.

“Destroying or long-term incapacitation of military airfields is not an easy task and is often impossible. Therefore, targeting maintenance and logistics facilities on its territory is an effective tactic,” the report read.