Part 4/10:
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which reported that 41 Russian aircraft, including TU-95 and TU-22M3 bombers—both nuclear-capable—were damaged or destroyed. The strike purportedly disabled over a third of Russia’s cruise missile bomber fleet and caused approximately $7 billion in damages. Russia dismissed the claims, asserting that its air bases successfully repelled the strikes, with no casualties reported. They labeled the operation as terrorist acts but offered no independent verification of the Ukrainian claims.