Ukrainian deep strikes are slowly dismantling the Russian bomber force.
Jan 20, 2025
Via Center for Strategic Communication
Now Ukraine’s long-range unmanned aerial vehicles are going after the factory that builds and maintains many of the Russian air force’s bombers: the Kazan Aircraft Plant in Kazan, around 700 miles from the front line in Ukraine. Overnight on Sunday, Russian Telegram users reported drones overhead—and a blast and fire at a fuel depot near the factory.
“Lighting up the night sky in Russia’s Kazan region, burning Russian aircraft manufacturing facilities for the production and repair of the long range strategic bombers that regularly rain missiles on the people of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communication celebrated as the flames rose and smoke billowed in Kazan.
The Sunday night strike was just part of a wider wave of raids. At the same time Kazan exploded, Ukrainian munitions—drones or missiles—struck a helicopter factory in the city as well as a fuel depot in Bryansk Oblast, in southern Russian just 25 miles from Ukraine. “And there will be more,” the Center for Strategic Communication vowed.
It’s unclear what types of drone were involved in attacks on Kazan. Ukraine has developed a dizzying array of long-range UAVs, including some based on modified A-22 sport planes. The earlier Saratov raids may have involved the smaller PD-2, Beaver, Liutyi and UJ-22—all of which are between six and 10 feet long, propeller-driven, presumably GPS-guided and capable of flying hundreds of miles with explosive payloads.
It’s notable that so many of Ukraine’s recent deep strikes have been targeting fuel depots. The raids are a kind of corollary to the ongoing campaign of strikes targeting the Russian oil industry—in particular, its refineries. Oil doesn’t just fuel the Russian war machine, it’s also a main source of revenue for the Russian state.
Blowing up the fuel tanks attached to Russian bomber bases—and the industrial sites associated with the bomber bases—probably can’t stop the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities, but it can make the bombardment costlier for Moscow.
And blowing up fuel tanks and factories is easier than blowing up the bombers themselves. The bombers—120 Tupolev Tu-22Ms, Tu-95s and Tu-160s—fly high and fast, launch their cruise missiles hundreds of miles from Ukrainian cities and, when they are on the ground, are spread across potentially dozens of bases.
By contrast, the tanks and factories are big and unmoving. Easy targets for Ukraine’s drones.
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Sources:
2. Center for Strategic Communication
3. Center for Defense Strategies
This must be the Ukrainian version of death by a 1000 cuts. There is no way that mafia land can protect all the industries tied to the military.
Ukraine’s sanctions are simply the best. Even if the regular ones get lifted, Ukraine’s sanctions will have a lasting effect.
The lack of air defense has opened mafia land widely to all sorts of air attacks. See it like a worn whore, lying on her soiled bed getting scronked around the clock.
That doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but accurate enough.
The past couple of weeks has seen an unprecedented number of Ukrainian attacks on the mafia whore.
Zakharova? 😉