Maxim Starchak
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The unprecedented attack on Russian military airfields by Ukrainian drones on June 1 is not only significant because it destroyed several strategic aviation aircraft. Operation Spiderweb also showed the world just how vulnerable Russia’s strategic nuclear forces are.
At the same time, it demonstrated that within a local conventional conflict, such attacks will not provoke a nuclear response from Moscow. The Russian nuclear doctrine was and remains aimed at the United States, and its goal is to prevent the threat of a global war.
The exact losses sustained by the Russian Aerospace Forces as a result of the Ukrainian drone attack have yet to be established, but they include at least seven Tu-95MS heavy strategic bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Several Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and at least one A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft were also destroyed. According to the Financial Times, the drones destroyed or damaged about 20 percent of Russia’s operationally ready long-range aviation.
Russia currently produces one strategic bomber per year, so it will take at least seven years to make up for the losses. The Tu-95MSs and Tu-22M3s were designed back in the Soviet era and are no longer in production, so as a carrier of cruise missiles, their destruction is a major blow to Russian long-range aviation. The loss of the A-50, meanwhile, will reduce the effectiveness of fighter and strike aircraft.
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