On 3 September 2026, at around 7:00 a.m., an assassination attempt was made on a high-ranking Russian Aerospace Forces officer in the village of Probuzhdenie near Engels.\u00a0Several sources identified Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ Long-Range Aviation, military unit 06987<\/b>, as the target. At the same time, Russian law enforcement agencies have not officially released the victim’s name. The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the assassination attempt and opened a criminal case on charges of attempted murder and illegal arms trafficking. Bullets and spent shell casings were recovered at the scene. The man was seriously wounded, he received emergency assistance and then was transported to Moscow on a special flight<\/b>.<\/p>\n
There is a particularly notable context to the assassination attempt: just three days earlier, on 31 August 2026, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine<\/b> charged Varpakhovich in absentia<\/b><\/a> over suspected involvement in a war crime related to the missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital<\/b>.<\/p>\n The timing is striking, but there is currently no verified evidence of Ukrainian involvement in the assassination attempt or of any connection between it and the new criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n The story of Varpakhovich is important not only because of the events of 3 September. It demonstrates how, over many years, OSINT and criminal investigations have transformed the abstract concept of “Russian strategic aviation” into specific names, positions, and chains of command.<\/p>\n Back in November 2015, following the start of the Russian air campaign in Syria, InformNapalm identified<\/a> crew members of Tu-160 strategic bombers and personnel of the 6950th Aviation Base in Engels<\/b>. The Tu-160 and Tu-95MS aircraft of this unit used Kh-55SM, Kh-555, and Kh-101 cruise missiles in strikes against Syria.<\/p>\nOSINT on Russian war criminals<\/h2>\n