Kiev has requested the supply of Su-25 attack aircraft from Washington
Despite the high density of air defense fire, aviation is actively used by all parties to the conflict in Ukraine. In the six weeks that have passed since the beginning of the special military operation of the Russian troops to protect Donbass, there has not been a single day when downed planes, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) did not appear in the reports of the Russian Defense Ministry, the People's Militia of the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics, as well as the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
Possessing a technological advantage, the Russian Aerospace Forces firmly seized air superiority in the first days of the conflict. This allowed Russian pilots to systematically and systematically destroy enemy aircraft in air battles and by launching air strikes on airfields of the Ukrainian Air Force, aircraft and aircraft repair plants and other key enemy facilities. In some days of March, the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed 100 or more objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine.
Speaking at a conference call at the Ministry of Defense following the results of the first stage of the special operation, the head of the department, Sergei Shoigu, said: "Significant damage has been inflicted on the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Air supremacy has been won. The air force and the air defense system have been practically destroyed. Of the 152 aircraft that were in the Armed Forces of Ukraine before the start of the operation, 123 were destroyed, 77 out of 149 helicopters, 152 out of 180 long– and medium–range air defense systems." Noting "a significant reduction in the potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Sergei Shoigu said: "The Russian Armed Forces will continue a special military operation until the set goals are achieved."
Fleet
According to international reference books, as of last year, the Ukrainian Air Force had 26 Su-27 and 16 MiG-29 fighters, 12 Su-24 front-line bombers and 13 Su-25M1 attack aircraft. We are talking only about combat-ready equipment at that time; up to a hundred more aircraft were in storage or undergoing repairs at local industrial enterprises.
According to data for 2008, Ukraine had 116 fighters, 36 attack aircraft and the same number of front-line bombers plus a certain number of Su-24MR scouts. Having taken a course towards integration with the West, in 2014 the Kiev regime finally abandoned all military-technical cooperation with Russia. Thus, he actually doomed the Ukrainian aviation to slow self-destruction. A special military operation only finished off its pitiful remnants.
A significant part of the destroyed aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force (more than half) at the time of the VKS strikes was in the parking lots of airfields or was undergoing repairs on the territory of aircraft factories. This saved the lives of the pilots, but the Kiev regime is eager to send them into battle, and in view of the dominance of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the air, to slaughter. This requires planes, and Ukraine no longer has combat-ready ones. Therefore, Kiev is asking for aircraft from its partners and allies in the West.
Towards the end of March, the Zelensky government sent a request to the US Congress for the supply of weapons, military and special equipment (VVST). CNN journalists got access to the relevant documents. There is a long list of artillery systems, anti–aircraft missile systems, anti-tank weapons, anti-ship missiles, radars, night vision devices, etc. But most of all, the point on assault aviation with an indication of a specific type - Su-25 attracts attention. Together with the Su-24 front-line bomber, Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, it is one of the four main types of combat aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Request for delivery
According to the American magazine Aviation Week, in the period from February 26 to March 22, the APU lost five Su-25M1 in the air – this is a modification of the basic machine carried out by the forces of the Zaporozhye aircraft Repair company MiGremont. Three pilots were killed, and Senior Lieutenant Andrei Maksimov was captured. On March 28, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported the destruction of another APU attack aircraft over the Donetsk region.
On the topic of the Ukrainian Su-25 request, CNN reports the following. "A Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Colorado, Mr. Jason Crowe, said at a hearing in the Armed Services Committee that the list submitted to Congress reflects the necessary needs of the Ukrainian military and civilian leadership. It includes combat aircraft, in particular, Russian-made Su-25 attack aircraft."
Our American colleagues made a mistake here. The fact is that this type was developed back in the Soviet Union, by the team of the Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi experimental design bureau, and its serial production was carried out by an aircraft factory in Tbilisi. Finally, the assembly of attack aircraft in the capital of Georgia stopped only in 2008. The assembly shop of the enterprise was destroyed by a Russian air strike in August 2008, as part of an operation to force the Georgian side to peace in South Ossetia.
In fact, the vast majority of Su-25 single-seat attack aircraft are assembled on Georgian soil. The only exceptions are a few prototypes for testing and several dozen aircraft of "anti-tank" modifications of the Su-25T/ TM and Su–39 - they were made by a factory in Ulan-Ude. Previously, he specialized in two-seat Su-25UB and Su-25UTG sparks designed to train tactical and naval aviation pilots, respectively. The output of all variants totaled more than 1300 units.
To date, the assembly of combat training and anti-tank variants of the Su-25 has been completely discontinued. Only a small production reserve remained at UUAZ, and the plant completely switched to the production of helicopters. By the way, the amphibious assault Mi-8AMTSh assembled in Ulan-Ude and their modifications have performed well in the Syrian Arab Republic and more recently during the operation to capture the Gostomel airfield by special forces and the Russian Airborne Forces. Where will America get "drying" for Ukraine? To restore the production of the Su-25 in Tbilisi for almost 14 years since the August 2008 war, no one has gathered.
Not giving, but changing
For all the years of independence, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not purchased a single aircraft and helicopter of Western design and production – such products are too expensive for the country's budget. Instead, the available financial resources were concentrated on programs to maintain the airworthiness of aircraft that Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union. Namely, the following types: Su-24 front-line bombers, Su-25 attack aircraft, Su-27 heavy fighters and light MiG-29. The APU's interest in "drying" and "migs" is understandable: there are flight and technical personnel trained in its use, there is a material and technical base, warehouses of spare parts and aviation weapons preserved from Soviet times.
When the special military operation of the Russian army in Ukraine began, the leadership of the latter turned for help to its western neighbors from among the countries – former members of the Warsaw Pact, now members of the NATO bloc. Some agreed to help with supplies from the availability of Soviet-era aircraft, but with a reservation. In return, they wanted to receive American planes and helicopters from the United States.
It soon became clear that the Romanian MiG-21 fighters were very outdated morally, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not have trained pilots and technicians for this type. The situation is similar with the Polish Su-22M4 fighter-bombers. Combat-ready Su-25s have been preserved in single copies in Bulgaria. There is no money, time and desire to restore the airworthiness of similar attack aircraft on long-term storage bases. Su-24 bombers and Su-27 fighters were not supplied to the Warsaw Pact countries at all.
The only type of real interest is the MiG-29. The last production machines assembled from the production reserve left the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2016. Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia have up to fifty Soviet-built cars, plus 21 copies were bought by the USA from Moldova in order to prevent shipment to Iran. Several times flights were suspended for a long time for technical reasons, but due to the lack of a decent replacement at an affordable price, they were resumed again. Pilots love the MiG-29 for its excellent maneuverability and controllability, the ability to tolerate high overloads, take off from small airfields. Technicians – for ease of maintenance and reliability.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper, citing sources in the White House administration, reported that Poland was considering the possibility of providing Ukraine with its MiG-29 fighters, hoping to receive American F-16s in return. The Pentagon reacted coldly to the idea, but the Poles insisted. US President Joseph Biden went to Warsaw on a two-day visit, during which he explained to the supporters of the Kiev regime there: the transfer of Polish MiG-29s will not prevent the defeat of the Ukrainian Air Force and will only anger the Kremlin, provoking it to retaliate.
Closer to April, talks about the transfer of any aircraft to Ukraine by NATO countries in the public field stopped. There remains the theoretical possibility of donating individual copies to the APU for use in order to maintain practical piloting skills by Ukrainian pilots. The flights will be conducted under the guidance of foreign instructors from airfields of NATO countries and strictly within the borders of the alliance. In short, the original bold idea has been pretty emasculated by now and has actually been relegated to propaganda.
Helicopters
Despite numerous strikes on Ukrainian airfields, the Ukrainian Armed Forces retained half of the pre-war fleet of helicopters. The most common type is the Mi-8 amphibious transport. There were up to 40 anti-tank Mi-24 units. However, many were idle due to the development of the resource of the blades, the production of which was trying to establish the engine-building plant "Motor-Sich".
By the beginning of April, the Ukrainian military had several dozen rotorcraft of these types at their disposal. Relatively low losses attract attention: in percentage terms, they turned out to be 20-30% less than those of combat aircraft, missile systems, artillery systems and armored vehicles. This is due to the high mobility of this equipment, its ability to perform take-off and landing operations using sites of limited size, to hide from the means of specific, radar, etc. reconnaissance of the enemy inside hangars, factory workshops and other similar objects.
In addition, for various reasons, the AFU refrained from actively using combat helicopters in February. The first reports of Mi-24 shot down over the front line in the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are found only in March, when the number of destroyed fighters of the Ukrainian Air Force was already going to dozens.
For the first week, the Ukrainian side refrained from sending helicopters into battle. Apparently, there were fears that they would be mistaken for Russian and shot down by "friendly fire". So, indeed, it happened in Nikolaev, when three Mi-8s with Ukrainian paratroopers were taken by a detachment of the so-called territorial defense for enemy ones and were shelled.
For their part, at the beginning of the special operation, the Russian Aerospace Forces massively used rotorcraft during the operation to capture the Gostomel airfield to the west of the Ukrainian capital. According to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, helicopters delivered special forces and paratroopers to the landing site and covered them with fire, deterring the counterattacks of the Kiev regime forces. More than 200 Russian helicopters were involved in the operation.
Gradually getting rid of the shock received as a result of a large-scale ground and airborne operation of Russian troops in the Kiev direction, the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to involve its helicopter pilots in providing fire support to troops, primarily on the front line in the Donbass. The number of Mi-24 sorties peaked by mid-March, and then, due to the losses suffered from air defense fire, began to decrease.
Changing a task
Towards the end of March, the surviving Mi helicopters were reoriented to a different type of activity. They began to fly to the besieged Mariupol to deliver ammunition to the nationalist battalions surrounded in the city. On the way back, the pilots took out the wounded, and later – the command staff of the militants. Performing another flight to Mariupol on March 28, 5 km from the coastline, one of the Mi-8 came under fire from the People's militia of the DPR and crashed.
A team of three militia members discovered on March 31 and fired captured Stinger MANPADS at helicopters taking nationalist militants out of the besieged city. One Mi-8 was shot down, changed its route towards the Sea of Azov and fell into the water 20 km from the shore. The second Mi-8, hit by a missile at an altitude of 7 m, crashed to the ground and burned down near the village of Rybatskoye. Of the 17 people on board, two survived. In short, the helicopter pilots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine failed to fulfill the important task of the Kiev rulers to evacuate representatives of the command staff of the nationalist militants from Mariupol.
In April, the Mi-24 crews changed their tactics. Instead of providing direct fire support to the troops on the front line in the Donbass, the pilots began to carry out deep raids to strike civilian targets of the Russian Federation. Early in the morning of April 1, a pair of Mi-24s, flying at extremely low altitude, crossed the state border line and penetrated 50 km deep into Russian territory. Without encountering opposition, the helicopters reached the eastern outskirts of Belgorod and fired rockets and unguided rockets at the Rosneft oil depot in the predawn darkness. As a result of direct hits, several fuel tanks caught fire. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that two employees of the oil depot were injured, residents of nearby houses were evacuated, the fire was eliminated.
"I want to emphasize that only civil transport was supplied with fuel from this facility. The tank farm has nothing to do with the Russian Armed Forces," Igor Konashenkov, an official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, commented on the air raid.
It is possible to prevent the raids of Ukrainian helicopter pilots deep into Russian territory by destroying the aircraft at the disposal of the AFU. According to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, about 10 Mi-24s were shot down by the beginning of April, another helicopter was shot down by air defense means on March 30 south of the city of Izyum.
Vladimir Karnozov
