The best part about this? They didn’t tell the US about this because they know they are leaking info to the Russians. Pathetic.
Hopefully this doesn’t inspire the Kremlin to do something particularly stupid at the cost of world peace again.
Their nuclear arsenal is not in fighting shape. I’d be surprised if any of the warheads are functional.
Agreed, but I digress, they could still manage to surprise us by having anything, but given the Ukrainians are wise enough not to bunch up their infantry, the effectiveness of such a bomb if they have one at all is limited.
I’m sure there’s like 12 warheads kept in prestige shape and that’s stretching it. No way they have kept up the necessary upkeep.
The thought of some poor Ivan playing nuclear chicken with a warhead core from the 80’s almost makes it all worth it.
Just read I the Norwegian news that two air bases in Murmansk (near the Norwegian border) were hit. If anything, this kind of strike hammers home how our support for Ukraine directly makes us safer as well.
These are planes that likely would have been used against Norway in the event of a war. Support for Ukraine is directly helping destroy equipment that otherwise could be used to attack us. We just need more people to understand this so we can get popular support for increasing our support a hundredfold.
This is such an intelligent take and well articulated. I’m in the UK and have colleagues that fear this action will lead us into WW3. Your rationale will help me challenge them.
Fookin’ lovely!
SLAVA UKRAINI!
Fuckin well done lads, keep up the good work. At this rate they won’t even have enough planes to stock the carrier they can’t sail anywhere
Slava Ukraini
Very roughly speaking, how many comparable aircraft does Russia own, just so I can understand the extent of this attack? Sounds great either way.
I was seeing from other online spaces that this would be about 30% of Russias strategic bomber fleet and it’s accompanying aircraft like their AWACs that got hit.
If that’s the case that’s a staggeringly bad day for the Russian air force, which means it’s a good fucking day.
I feel like the AWACs is a way bigger loss than all those obsolete bombers.
Those bombers have been wantonly dropping cruise missiles of to hit Ukraine. Both are significant.
Yeah, because powerful countries for better or worse did not decisively intercede to destroy them.
Oh cmon dude. There are actual reasons that the west escalated their aid over a time.
It’s not a reason I agree with, but their logic in doing so is also entirely justifiable.
Thank you, and wow, that’s some good fucking news.
30% less bombers means drone and missile attacks into Ukraine can be significantly decreased that’s one of the biggest developments since the start of the war.
@Bonifratz @AnalogNotDigital I was interested in this - can you share where this figure came from / how calculated?
They have roughly 120 strategic bombers in their air force. 40 of those is 33%.
@AnalogNotDigital Ah I found BBC, Reuters and AP quoting the Ukranian SBU " SBU officially confirmed it had carried out the strikes, saying that “34% of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers” were hit" - bbc.com/news/articles/c1ld7ppr… - and that " Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, as well as A-50 were destroyed" - Claims not yet independently verified. - It sounds like a massive hit but I have a feeling that we might see independent claims downgrading the figure a bit. The “strategic cruise missile carriers” is also a bit of qualifier. I would assume that there are independent estimates of what usable air power Russia has. I’m not seeing those chime in yet.
I think the “strategic cruise missile carriers” bit is just a bad translation, it’s clear in ukranian he means “we blew up aircraft capable of launching cruise missiles” and then is discussing the specific aircraft destroyed as separate figures.
@Bonifratz @AnalogNotDigital Do you have sources for those stats?
I just watched a couple of videos on this attack and one thing that stood out is the AWACS - Russia has 5, but only one airworthy one and Ukraine hit that one.
Basically, the Russian AF is blind outside of its bases. It’s going to make it much more difficult for Russia to operate outside its borders.
One report I saw says they even hit a base near the northern border with Finland. A Russian sub has possibly been promoted to artificial reef.
Combine this attack with the two bridge collapses and the attack on Vladivostok, and Russia should be worried. Ukraine and their domestic insurgency can hit pretty much anywhere.
Thanks. Great stuff.
Wow. Honestly kinda surprised they were that vulnerable. Doesn’t Russia have any sort of CWIS systems to defend their ground based nuclear bombers and advanced radar command and control aircraft? Seems kinda important, don’t you think?
They were expecting big slow drones that would take hours flying from Ukraine. Instead they got many small ones that took 18 months to arrive but were invisible until the last minute. A surprise zerg rush, when they were expecting and preparing against ultralisks.
(My analogies are very weak today)
Zergling rush with overlord drops. 🤌
They seem to have gotten complacent because they can just move the planes if Ukraine sends long range drones.
Yes, it’s a war of many firsts, especially about distance being a form of defence. Moskva was drowned like that too.
Modern day version of raiding Nazi airbases.
Pretty much all of their air defense seems to be stationed at the front and around their oil facilities.
Blowing up an oil facility on at least a weekly basis for the past year will definitely do that. Like a boxer going for a hundred consecutive body shots then throwing a haymaker at the face.
I’m wondering if the man power drain is affecting them that much.
Getting fucking rekt, Russia. Sabotage is king
How much does it cost to replace?
Most of these cannot be replaced. They were already short on parts beforehand.
So what is the expected monetary-equivalent loss taken?
Well, the A-50 and the TU-22 M3 mentioned in the article cost around 300-400 million USD each but it’s not known yet how many of each type have been damaged and to what extent. Inflicting monetary damage is not as much of a priority compared to crippling Russia’s ability to continue their air assaults.
Literally irreplaceable as Russia can’t build these planes anymore.
The dollar value is easily in the billions.
Too bad so sad lol. Suck it Ruskies.
The tankie triad is going to have an extra chip on their shoulders these upcoming days.
i will wait a week to then read the real number.
41 seems fairly specific to me in the article, but we should remember that hit does not mean destroyed
An aircraft hit by explosive is usually pretty much unairworthy, at least for some times.
And I’m guessing Russia doesn’t have much of a supply of usable spare parts for all these aircraft.
Some of these aircraft are leftovers from the USSR days and were built in Ukraine so there are no parts and no facilities in Russia to make them.
For the modern ones, Russia is having trouble getting the parts due to sanctions, even with all the help from China.
I’m a particular fan of Ukrainians destroying Ukrainian built war equipment in use by Russians. It’s beautiful.
Noel says 41 were TARGETED, citing official sources
Yeah, if you set a bomb off on a plane that is most likely fuel laden, you’re not going to be able to fly that plane again. If the air frame isn’t completely destroyed, it’s going to take months or years to repair, functionally rendering it destroyed.
Right my point is we don’t know how many “targeted” planes were actually hit. Like does that mean they launched drones with the intention of hitting them? Does it mean Zelinsky pointed to a satellite image and said “try to get that plane on the airfield”? I hope they get as many as possible but I’m still a little skeptical of the 40 plane claim. Let’s wait and see, satellite images will be able to prove it one way or another.
There’s drone footage already out there showing the planes burning.
Yeah I’ve seen drone footage of 4-5 planes burning though, not 40. It would not be the first time Ukraine has made a big exaggerated claim.
Edit: “🇺🇦 Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, reports that at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed and additional aircraft damaged during Ukraine’s large-scale operation “Spiderweb” on June 1.” Downvote me all you want. Source
All I’d say is that isn’t an exaggerated claim. They said 41 targeted, any assumption about how many were hit is not coming from them.
Equally, the quote you have provided confirms just that they know of at least 13 destroyed. It could be 41 were hit but only 13 destroyed.
This also implies:
- they are still assessing the total impact and 2. arguably are doing exactly the opposite of what you stated by only counting known destruction and not exaggerating
