# Shaykovka air base

Shaykovka air base (Russian: Шайковка; State airfields index: ЬУБЙ), also given variously as Kirov Shaykovka, Anisovo Gorod, Anisovo Gorodishche, Shaykovo, Shajkovka, Gorodische, Chaikovka, is an airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Kaluga Oblast, Russia located 17 km north of Kirov, Kaluga Oblast. It is a large airfield with hangars and an extensive alert area for fighters. NASA's FIRMS indicates the runway overrun has been hardened to extend the runway to 3000 m. In 2000, Tupolev Tu-160, Tupolev Tu-95MS, and Tupolev Tu-22M3 aircraft operated out of this base during a training exercise. The Natural Resources Defense Council listed the base as a nuclear site in a study.
As of 2020, the 52nd Heavy Bomber Regiment of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Division was still reported resident at the base flying Tu-22M3 Backfires. In 2021 Tu-22M3 Backfires from the base forward deployed to Russian bases in Syria for operations and exercises in the region.

## History

The airfield was built by 1937, when the 13th Separate High-Speed Bomber Aviation Squadron of the Air Forces of the Belorussian Military District with Tupolev SB bombers was stationed there.
Units stationed here have included the 73rd gv. iap (73-й гв. иап: гвардейский истребительный авиационный полк - 73rd Guards Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying Mikoyan MiG-29 aircraft in the 1990s and 2000s; and the 52nd gv. tbap (152-й гв. тбап: гвардейский тяжелый бомбардировочный авиаполк - 52nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying Tupolev Tu-16 bombers, taking on 19 Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft starting in 1982, and transitioning to an ITBAP (Instructor Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) in 1989.

### Syrian Civil War

On December 12, 2017, a ceremony was held at Shaykovka air base when a fleet of Tu-22M3 returned from the Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war. Lieutenant general and long-range-aviation commander Sergey Kobylash awarded the returning crews with the medal "Participant of the military operation in Syria". Attendants in the ceremony included crew relatives, veterans and representatives of Yunarmiya.

### Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 27 June 2022, the Russian Armed Forces fired two Kh-22 anti-ship missiles into central Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine, hitting the Amstor shopping mall and the Kredmash road machinery plant. A fire broke out; the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 56. The anti-ship missiles were launched from Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers that took off from the Shaykovka air base.
On 7 October 2022 there were reports of a kamikaze drone attack on the air base, destroying two Tu-22M3 bombers.
On 20 October 2024, the Shaykovka air base chief of staff and bomber pilot responsible for recent attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, was found dead in an apple orchard in Bryansk Oblast, apparently a targeted assassination. Dmitry Vladimirovich Golenkov was reportedly responsible for the missile attacks on the Kremenchuk Shopping Mall (22 deaths, with >1000 in the buildings at the time) Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, in June 2022, and the Dnipro apartment building which killed 46 people in January 2023 in Dnipro. Golenkov had earlier spoken with a journalist about the attacks.