Zyabrovka (also Pribytki) is a military air base located 16 km southeast of

Gomel Gomel (, ) or Homyel (, ) is a city in south-eastern Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Gomel Region and Gomel District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it is the List of cities and largest ...

, Gomel Region,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. From November 1951 to July 1957 the

50th Air Army 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

Long-Range Aviation Long Range Aviation may refer to the following: * Soviet Long Range Aviation, the branch of the Soviet Air Force responsible for long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 * Ukrainian L ...

included the 144th Fighter Aviation Division with its headquarters at

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

, Mogilev Oblast,

Belorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922 as an independent state, and ...

. The division's 439th Fighter Aviation Regiment was flying MiG-15s and MiG-17s during that period from Zyabrovka. The regiment disbanded on 1 April 1958. By the early 1960s Tupolev Tu-16R aircraft were flying from the base. The airfield was renovated in 1963. It received the

Tu-22 The Tupolev Tu-22 ( Air Standardization Coordinating Committee name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with Long-Range Aviation and Soviet Nava ...

R around 1966, and by 1967 had 24 based there. Pribytki was one of nine major operating locations for the

Tupolev Tu-22 The Tupolev Tu-22 ( Air Standardization Coordinating Committee name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with Long-Range Aviation and Soviet Nav ...

Blinder in the mid-1960s. The reconnaissance aircraft were tasked with operations in the Baltic and northern Europe. From 1973 into the 1980s pilots from Libya and Iraq trained in the Tu-22 here. The Tu-22 units were disbanded in 1994 and the aircraft sent to

Engels-2 Engels-2 () is a strategic bomber military airbase in Russia located east of Saratov. Engels is a major bomber operations base, and is Russia's sole operating location for the Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO: Blackjack) strategic bomber. The base has a ...

for disposal. Pribytki was home to 290 Gv ODRAP (290th Guards Long Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment) flying Tu-16R from the early 1960s to 1994 and the Tu-22RDM from the 1960s to 1994; plus a number of Tu-22R aircraft. From 1960 to 1980 the regiment was part of the 6th Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps, and from 1980 to 1994, the 46th Air Army. (Holm) During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

the Russian military deployed attack helicopters here.

References

External links

*Micheal Holm, http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/regiment/bap/290odrap.htm Soviet Long Range Aviation bases Military installations of Belarus Airports in Belarus Belarusian Air Force {{Belarus-transport-stub