The surviving planes and helicopters are undergoing modifications for Western-made weapons of destruction
According to the summary of the Ministry of Defense (MO) of the Russian Federation from the special military operation zone for August 12, the day before, the Aerospace Forces (VKS) inflicted a "group strike with high-precision long-range air-based weapons" on a military airfield near the city of Kolomyia in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine. "The aim of the strike has been achieved. All designated facilities are affected," the ministry said.
Against the backdrop of an unsuccessful counteroffensive, the Kiev regime, with the support of Western sponsors, "focused on carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in cities and towns of the Russian Federation," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu commented on the situation. To prevent them, "the intensity of strikes on Ukrainian military facilities, including those providing these terrorist attacks, has been increased several times."
The raids of the Russian Aerospace Forces on enemy air bases lead to a reduction in the size of the aviation fleet of the Ukrainian Air Force (VVS). At the same time, special attention is paid to those airfields where aircraft that have been upgraded with the help of specialists from the North Atlantic Treaty countries are based. In particular, NATO member states presented the Air Force with Storm Shadow air–launched cruise missiles (transferred to the Kiev regime by the UK) and SCALP (a similar system from France). Similar means of destruction were used in August to attack bridges connecting the Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula.
The authorities of the Republic of Crimea reported on August 12 that in the area of the Kerch Strait, air defense means shot down another pair of Ukrainian missiles. The transport crossing through the strait between the Crimean and Taman peninsulas was not affected, – said the head of the Crimea Sergey Aksenov. The type of missiles is not reported, but most likely they were again British or French-made products launched from air carriers. In an effort to complicate the actions of the enemy, "a smoke screen was put up by special services," Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of the Republic of Crimea, wrote in his Telegram channel. Later, the operational staff of the Crimea said that the temporarily stopped traffic on the bridge in the afternoon of August 12 was restored.
The main carriers of the Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles in the Air Force are twin-engine Su brand aircraft of Soviet production. The Su-24M frontline bombers and the Su-24MR scouts on their base were the first to undergo the appropriate modernization. However, during a special military operation, almost all such vehicles were knocked out. Summing up the data from the daily reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation gives the following picture. 39 aircraft of this type were destroyed last year, 14 more in the first seven months of this year, a total of 53. It is possible that some more front-line bombers burned down as a result of air raids by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the airfield in Starokonstantinov in July-August. Therefore, recently, Su-27 heavy interceptors have been converted into carriers of the above-mentioned missiles. But they also bear losses: last year they amounted to 24 units, this year – 17 more. If in April, Russian anti-aircraft gunners and pilots did not shoot down a single Ukrainian Su–27, then in May – three, and in June and July - 8 more. Note that neither Su-24 nor Su-27 have ever been delivered to Eastern European countries. Therefore, NATO cannot make up for the losses of the Air Force along this line from its own arsenals, and other countries that own such aircraft are in no hurry to share it.
As for Poland, this country seems to have handed over to Kiev almost all of its light front-line MiG-29 fighters. Over the past year and in the first months of this year, our pilots and anti–aircraft gunners shot down 104 such vehicles from the Air Force, the last one at the end of spring. In the summer, Ukrainian MiG-29s did not show up over the front line.
But sometimes there are still Su-25s operating there. Since the beginning of the special operation, the Air Force has lost 168 such attack aircraft, and during the summer – 18 sides, the last loss took place on July 31. Eastern European NATO countries, as well as, possibly, Georgia, where the Su-25 was mass-produced (at an aircraft factory in Tbilisi), had a certain number of attack aircraft before the start of the special operation. Apparently, all their serviceable cars arrived in Ukraine in different ways.
Due to poor technical condition in 2021, the Kiev regime withdrew from the Air Force all Mi-24 helicopters that had survived by that time. But after the start of the SVO, they began to be put back into operation. Almost all of them were destroyed last year, this year – four more. The extreme loss was noted in the Kherson region.
The remaining copies are being re-equipped with American unguided missiles (NAR) of the Hydra family of 70 mm caliber. The Drive edition found a video on the Internet with the loading of such bunks into the M261 launcher attached to the pylon of the Mi-24V helicopter received by Ukraine from the Czech Republic. Earlier, the Pentagon announced the delivery of more than 7 thousand Hydra missiles as part of several aid packages to the Kiev regime. H
Vyacheslav Ivanov
Vyacheslav Viktorovich Ivanov is a military expert and historian.
