The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, managed to destroy multiple Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers in an audacious drone attack launched on June 1. Interestingly, several of these bombers were “deceitfully” acquired by Russia from Ukraine and Kazakhstan after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Ukraine launched the attacks under ‘Operation Spiderweb’ using 117 First Person View (FPV) drones that were smuggled into Russia, concealed in wooden containers with remotely operated roofs mounted on trucks.
These trucks, driven by individuals reportedly unaware of the cargo they were carrying, were positioned near the target air bases.
At the designated time, the container roofs were opened remotely, and the drones were launched to strike their targets. The SBU targeted four Russian military airbases simultaneously: Belaya, Diaghilev, Olenya, and Ivanovo. The objective of this meticulously planned operation was to damage or destroy Russia’s long-range bombers that were regularly used for conducting air strikes against Ukrainian cities.
In the aftermath of the shocking attack, the SBU claimed the strikes damaged or destroyed 41 aircraft, including nuclear-capable Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and Tu-160 strategic bombers. “$7 billion: This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of the SBU’s special operation,” the security service said in a social media post.
While several pro-Russian military bloggers and military analysts denied the claims of extensive damage at first, the satellite imagery is now unravelling the hit that Russian assets have taken. Russia appears to have lost another A-50 Mainstay Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) aircraft. This is the third A-50, of which Russia has fewer than 10, to be lost in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In addition to the A-50, several independent Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysts confirmed damage to at least 13 bombers via satellite imagery and drone footage. This includes four to six Tu-95, about three Tu-22M3 bombers, and about two Tu-160.
Meanwhile, some pro-Ukrainian military bloggers allege greater damage.
A Ukrainian blogger who has been very active throughout the Ukraine War, Igor Sushko, wrote on X: Russians are reporting a loss of at least 18x Tu-95 ($250M each) & Tu-22 ($350M each) strategic bombers and 2x A-50 AWACS aircraft ($350M each).”
These figures could not be independently verified as the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) remains tight-lipped on the losses. However, we are certain that multiple Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 have either been destroyed or badly damaged.
This is not the first time that Russian long-range bombers have come under attack. In December 2022, in a first attack of that kind, some modified Soviet-era drones were launched by the Ukrainian military at two Russian air bases housing the Tu-95 and Tu-160, as reported by the EurAsian Times at the time. The attack was not as big and sophisticated as the latest one, but it did manage to take out at least one Tu-95 Bear.
The last two years have witnessed several incidents of attacks and sabotage against Russian bombers by Ukrainian intelligence and security forces. For example, Ukrainian forces attacked the Soltsy airfield in the Novgorod region in the summer of 2023, destroying a Tu-22M3 bomber using quadcopter drones—reportedly without even relying on satellite communications.
However, a tragedy of this scale is new. The loss of multiple Tu-95 bombers, in particular, is seen as a massive setback for the Russian long-range bomber force, as the aircraft has been out of production for several years.
This means that any loss confirmed by Russia would be a permanent one, with no way for the VKS to replenish the fleet. The Tu-95, along with the Tu-160, forms the backbone of Russian long-range strategic aviation.
The incident reignites memory of the time when Russia hatched a deceitful plan to secure about 40 Tu-95 bombers from the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan because Moscow did not inherit many after the fall of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, this significant piece of post-Soviet history was published widely by Ukrainian media about a month before Operation Spiderweb was launched.
How Did Russia Secure Tu-95 Bombers?
On December 25, 1991, the-then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from his position, and the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin. The day marked the collapse of the Communist Soviet Union, which had thrived for decades in the Eastern European bloc, in Central Asia, and beyond.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, several former Soviet states that had now become independent received the Soviet military equipment and munitions as inheritance.
Since the division of equipment was made in no particular order, Russia received a very small number of certain critical offensive platforms that would decide the course of its military thereafter. For one, it received a small number of strategic bombers.
Some other Soviet states inherited military equipment, munitions, or technology that they eventually had to relinquish. For instance, on December 5, 1994, Ukraine gave away its substantial stockpile of nuclear weapons in return for security that the US, the UK, and Russia would protect its territorial integrity.
The final nuclear warheads were handed over to Russia by July 1996. The US paid Ukraine around half a billion dollars to aid the effort.
After the Soviet collapse, Ukraine also inherited approximately 102 strategic bombers: 23 Tu-95MS, 19 Tu-160, and more than 60 Tu-22M3. But when it agreed to give up nuclear weapons, it also agreed to scrap or dismantle the majority of these bombers.
The rest of the bombers were eventually turned over to Russia because Ukraine faced challenges in maintaining and operating these strategic bombers due to economic constraints, a lack of spare parts, and geopolitical pressures.
This was a time when Ukraine needed gas and Russia needed bombers.
The final Tu-95MS strategic bomber was reportedly manufactured at the Kuybyshev Aircraft Plant in February 1992. The potential of Russia to produce such strategic aircraft was subsequently lost. In the past, Russia had seven Tu-95K training aircraft, 45 older Tu-95 K-22s, and approximately 22 to 27 Tu-95 MS bombers.
Therefore, to address the shortfall, Russia decided to acquire bombers from other former Soviet states that had inherited them.
Between 1999 and 2000, Kyiv transferred Tu-95 and Tu-160 as partial payments for natural gas debts, along with 575 Kh-55 missiles. These were the most operational aircraft and were quickly integrated into Russia’s air force. Ironically, these later became the bombers that launched devastating missile strikes on Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian media, the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan, which has been a close Russian ally, was another country that had inherited the strategic bombers that Russia wanted.
It surprisingly got the largest fleet of Tu-95MS bombers after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Of these, 27 were Tu-95MS-16s, which had external missile mounts, and 13 were Tu-95MS-6s with internal bay only.
All of Kazakhstan’s bombers were based at the now-defunct Semipalatinsk-2 airbase with the 79th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. However, neither the division nor its resources were fully under the control of the newly formed Kazakh government.
This is where, as per Ukrainian media, Russia saw a window of opportunity.
In essence, Russia exploited Kazakhstan’s inexperience and the sluggishness of joint flight training protocols from the Soviet era.
While the Soviet Union was now a thing of the past, Russian and Kazakh bomber crews continued to fly together between Semipalatinsk-2 and the Ukrainka Air Base, Russia’s largest strategic long-range aviation base in the Far East.
According to one version of events, the Russians replaced the Kazakh Tu-95MS bombers that landed at Ukrainka with older Tu-95Ks as part of these joint flying operations. The Kazakh aircrews, who were either unaware or complicit, made the swap possible. By the time Kazakhstan discovered that older bombers had been returned to the country, it was too late to reverse what had happened.
Another account of the events suggests that there was no exchange of bombers, and Kazakh Tu-95MS bombers flew to Ukrainka as part of normal training exercises, and were forbidden to leave by Russia. Thus, the bombers were captured deceitfully.
EurAsian Times could not independently verify these claims due to a paucity of information from credible official sources. However, Ukrainian media reports stated that the information was based on Russian sources, which claimed that about 16-18 Tu-95 were stolen by Moscow at the time.
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