Kursk Vostochny Air Base

Kursk Vostochny Airport, also known as Khalino airbase or Kursk-Khalino, is an air base located 7 km east of Kursk in Kursk Oblast, Russia. It has been used for many decades as a military airbase and has had periods of time when it was also utilized as a commercial airport. It is owned by the Russian Aerospace Forces and operated by the 6th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. The base is considered medium-sized and includes several alert pads. A civilian tarmac is located on the southern side, utilizing common runway facilities. Historically, the base was home to the 472nd Fighter Aviation Regiment from 1979 to 1998, which was equipped with Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23P or S aircraft and was disbanded in 1998. Currently, the 14th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (14 Gv IAP), which previously flew Mikoyan MiG-29 aircraft, is part of the 105th Guards Mixed Aviation Division, operating Sukhoi Su-30 SM aircraft from this base. All commercial flight activity at the airport was banned by Russian authorities starting on February 24, 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The base has been targeted during the conflict; on December 6, 2022, an oil storage facility caught fire, which the Kursk governor attributed to a drone strike. On June 2, 2023, Ukrainian sources reported damage or destruction to several Su-34 combat aircraft, a single MiG-29, and a Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system at the airport, though this information was not independently verified. On July 31, 2024, Ukrainian forces struck military storage facilities near the airbase, causing a fire.