On Sunday, the adventurous and scale of Ukraine’s courageous drone attack on Russian air areas made headlines worldwide.
More than 4,000 km (2,500 mi) from Ukraine, more than 100 Ukrane first-parson view drones from trucks launched from trucks launched from trucks launched from trucks launched from trucks launched from trucks launched at four Russian airports in three time areas including Belya Air Base in the Siberian region of Ikutsk.
Strikes targeted the Russian airbase in Olenya, in the Arctic near Finland, and Evanovo and Diagilevo east of Moscow.
UkraineThe Safety Service (SBU) said that it spent more than 18 months, which is planning an operation, which has been named “Spiderweb”. Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelansky Personally maintained its care.
According to Ukrainian officials, the operation destroyed or damaged 41 Russian aircraft, about a third of Moscow’s strategic bombing fleet. Tupolev TU-95 and TU-22 long distance bombers, as well as Bearev A-50 initial warning aircraft, hits.
TU-95 is the code-name “bear” by NATO, a four engine turboprop aircraft. It was designed to rival the US B -52 bomber in the 1950s. Before Sunday, experts speculated that Russia had a fleet of about 60 such aircraft.
The Tupolev Tu-22m designed in the 1970s, a twin-engine supersonic bomber, was given the NATO code name “backfire”. Prior to Sunday’s drone strike, Russia was estimated to be between 50 to 60 TU-22m3s in service.
Moscow has previously used TU-95 and TU-22m bombers to launch missiles in Ukraine. The A-50s are used to coordinate goals and detect air rescue and guided missiles.
Ukrainian authorities estimated the loss from $ 7 billion (€ 6.1 billion) from the attack.
However, the impact of the strike is far-reaching as Russia no longer produces TU-22 or TU-95 bomber aircraft.
This means that the destroyed aircraft cannot be re -done.
The TU-160 supersonic strategic bombers in Russia, of which less than 20 are in service. The country recently resumed their production, a slow pace.
In December, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belounsov announced that the Russian Air Force would receive four advanced TU-160s in 2025. This is not known, however, if they were produced from scratches.
The Russian Ministry of Defense admitted on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched a drone strike against Russian military aerial areas in five areas.
The ministry said that air strikes were removed in all but two areas: Murmansk in a far north and Irqutsk in Siberia. The thesis in two fields, “Many aircraft set fire to fire as a result of launch in close proximity to an area of FPV drones.”
Russian state and state controlled media reduced most of the attacks. For example, the Russian -1 TV channel spent a minute for a minute on Sunday evening, with a letter read with a statement of the Ministry of Defense.
