Despite the significant losses in the war against Ukraine, Russia still has a large aircraft fleet and the capacity to produce about several aircraft a year, in addition to repairing the old aircraft.

Source: Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force of Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrinform news agency

Quote: “We should not hope that they will have something worn out. They have factories that can restore and maintain old aircraft. And the fact that there is something that doesn’t reach us (the launched missiles and bombs that sometimes fall on the Russian territory – ed.) is their clumsiness, perhaps a mistake, perhaps some other factors caused the bomb to come down earlier – maybe they just don’t want to fly closer and become a target for our air defence, for example?

Tu-95 bombers also launch missiles, and they often fall into the Caspian Sea. There are probably a lot of missiles floating around in the sea at this point that simply didn’t fly. We hope that there will be more and more of these. Perhaps because of the sanctions, which partially affect them, and they do not receive some spare parts, and replace the necessary parts with some other components, it may just have an impact [on their military industry].”

Details: Ihnat stressed that despite the significant losses in the war against Ukraine, Russia still has a lot of aircraft.

“There are about 1,500 combat aircraft that Russia has in storage throughout its territory, plus some outdated ones, kept mothballed. They also have enough helicopters. But even if about 300 of the 1,500 are destroyed, it is a serious share. You see the destruction of their aircraft every day,” Ihnat said.

In addition, every year, the Russians have new aircraft produced, although there are not many of them. For example, in 2023, as Ihnat stated, four SU-30SM fighters and several SU-34 fighter-bombers were delivered to the Russian military.

Background: Over the past five days, Ukraine’s Air Force has destroyed seven Russian aircraft on the eastern front.

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