STRATEGIC LOSS

Putin Humiliated as Irreplaceable Nuclear Bomber Crashes

A large number of Putin’s losses have been self-inflicted.

A nuclear-capable Russian bomber has crashed during a training flight, handing Vladimir Putin another stinging loss from his irreplaceable strategic fleet.

The Tu-95 “Bear” went down in the Far Eastern Amur region while flying without ammunition during a training flight on Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. Only one of the seven crew members survived the crash.

“The plane crashed in an uninhabited area. According to preliminary reports, six crew members were killed, one was injured and evacuated to a medical facility,” the ministry said.

Russia’s air force has taken a beating throughout the war in Ukraine, with a number of its aircraft losses being self-inflicted, including Tuesday’s crash.

Moscow has not built a Tu-95 since 1992. Putin, 73, has relied on the aircraft to strike Ukraine throughout his full-scale invasion of the country, which he launched in February 2022.

The Tu-95 is one of only two Russian aircraft capable of launching long-range Kh-101 cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities. The Cold War-era bombers have a range of about 9,300 miles, can carry a missile payload of 33,000 pounds, and form part of Moscow’s nuclear forces.

“They’re part of Russia’s nuclear triad,” Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow for airpower and technology at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told The Telegraph. “They’ve been used to conduct intensive missile raids against Ukraine for four-and-a-half years.”

Tuesday’s crash added to Russia’s extensive military losses throughout the conflict.

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Oryx, the Dutch open-source intelligence defense analysis website, has visually confirmed 166 Russian aircraft destroyed and another 30 damaged since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Its tally includes eight Tu-95 strategic bombers destroyed and three damaged.

Ukraine has also suffered heavy aviation losses. Oryx has visually confirmed 116 Ukrainian aircraft destroyed, four damaged and one captured. Kyiv’s military, which publishes its own estimates of Russian losses, said Wednesday that Moscow had lost 443 aircraft since the war began. Moscow rarely divulges figures for its wartime equipment or troop losses.

According to Ukrainian military analyst and weapons expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi, Russia began the war with around 60 Tu-95 strategic bombers. Since then, its fleet has reportedly been reduced to around 45 aircraft, “of which a maximum of 36 can actually fly.”

The dwindling number of Tu-95s could affect Russia’s ability to sustain its long-range attacks.

Robert Tollast, a researcher on RUSI’s land warfare team, said the bombers were “obviously really important for Russia’s deep-strike campaign.”

“So the fewer Tu-95s Russia has, the fewer of these missiles can be fired with the devastating warheads and the long range,” Tollast added.

Russia had already resorted to unusual measures to protect its strategic bombers from Ukrainian attacks. Satellite imagery posted in 2023 showed car tires covering the wings of a Tu-95 at the Engels military airfield, deep inside Russian territory. X user Tatarigami_UA, a self-described Ukrainian military reserve officer who posted the image, said Russia was using the tactic to deter drone attacks.

Witnesses said the bomber had been flying perilously close to the ground shortly before it crashed.

“We were standing there, hearing a noise, and thought it was a truck. We looked up and saw a plane flying overhead, like at the treetops. About 10, 15, 20 meters away…Then we looked up and everything was bright,” eyewitnesses told Izvestia.

The Defense Ministry dispatched a commission from the Russian Aerospace Forces to investigate the crash. A technical malfunction was reported as the preliminary cause, while unconfirmed Russian reports claimed fuel exploded aboard the aircraft.

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Isabel van BrugenFreelance Writer

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