If you ever find yourself 60 miles north of Vladivostok in the city of Ussuriysk, you can visit the crumbling Vozdvizhenka Air Base, where gutted planes sit in the open for trespassers to explore. Crazily enough, security's nonexistent here.
The Ussuriysk base was home to 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment and Tupolev jets until the base was abandoned. Notes English Russia:
The regiment [existed] since July 1941. Over the years 1950-1980 Tu-4 and Tu-16 were widely used. The first Tu-22 was taken to the air in 1991. Following the war reform of 2007 many airplanes were shifted to Siberia while others were dismantled.
It's somewhat incredible to just be able to waltz on to the premises of an air base and trot all over these once high-tech planes to your heart's content — that hangar's giving me flashbacks of the Željava Air Base in Bosnia-Herzegovina. You can see many more photos at Live Report.
