Britain believes that Russia’s recent move related to strategic bomber fleets may affect the combat effectiveness of the weapons that help Moscow deploy the rain of fire tactics in Ukraine.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, Russia seems to have moved a fleet of strategic bombers to locations in the Far East, thousands of kilometers from Ukraine. If this information is true, the UK believes that this move will pose a challenge to the fleet of aircraft that Moscow has used to carry out fire rain tactics in Ukraine over the past time.
Russia has previously accused Ukraine of attacking the Dyagilevo and Engels air bases on December 5, causing Moscow to lose at least one Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber and possibly a Tupolev Tu-95MS bomber. .
The two attacks illustrate the risks that Russia’s bomber fleet faces even though they are deep inside the country. Engels base in Saratov region, 724km from Ukraine border. Meanwhile, the Dyagilevo base in Ryazan, 644km from the border between the two countries.
On December 26, Engels base continued to be attacked. Ukraine does not accept responsibility for the incidents despite accusations by Russia.
A day after the incident, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that Moscow had transferred Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers to Primorsky Krai, nearly 6,000km from the border with Ukraine. . According to the open source intelligence firm Janes, an estimated six Tu-95s have been delivered out of Engels.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on January 5 that Russia was highly likely to have moved long-range bombers to an area far from the border with Ukraine out of concern that they would continue to be the target of an attack in the near future. next time.
Although the planes can still launch air-launched cruise missiles into Ukraine because of the weapon’s range of nearly 5,000km, the UK Ministry of Defense warns that “operating from remote locations would pose a challenge to maintenance of aircraft”. Engels and Dyagilevo are the key airfields of Russia’s strategic aviation operations. Moving aircraft to a very long distance can make it difficult to repair, operate …
In addition, when the bombers are moved away, in order to attack Ukraine, they will be forced to fly for many more hours. He believes that this is not in the interests of Russia because Moscow’s planes are old because they have been in operation for many years. Therefore, increasing the distance they have to fly can limit their operating time. Britain said that if Russia really moved the planes thousands of kilometers away from the Ukrainian border, this move would be beneficial to Ukraine and detrimental to Russia in the context that Moscow has used the above weapons in the past time. missile attack on the opponent.
The British comment comes in the context of Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, predicting that Russia may face more attacks deep into the territory in the near future. However, Mr. Budanov did not comment on whether Ukraine was behind the incidents.
