Russia loses a third of Su-34 bombers and increasingly relies on guided bombs in Ukraine
Russia has lost nearly one-third of its Su-34 bomber fleet, and its forces more frequently resort to using guided air bombs to make any advancements on the front, according to aviation expert and deputy director of a Ukrainian electronic warfare equipment manufacturing company, Anatoliy Khrapchinskiy, on the "Kyiv 24" broadcast.
"In two years of Russia's full-scale invasion, they've lost as many aircraft in Ukraine as they had built over more than five and a half years. That's a significant loss. It amounts to one-third of their Su-34 planes that were in service," he noted.
Khrapchinskiy added that Russian occupiers would continue using guided air bombs, known as KABs, for strikes on front-line settlements, realizing that this tactic might allow them some territorial gains.
"There's also an inherent factor that Russia fights with the last of its soldiers, so there's a desperate need for the use of KABs. We observe this particular strategy is enabling them to capture certain positions. They will drop KABs on civilian cities, just to seize even a slight stretch of land," the expert stated.
The Russian command used guided air bombs to shell the city of Kurakhove, towards which the Russian forces have been pushing. The attack hit civilian infrastructure and a residential area.
Previously, on some days the Russian forces had launched up to a hundred guided air bombs at Avdiivka. The Ukrainian Air Force began to counteract these aircraft, resulting in the loss of two bombers on February 27, and seven more just a few days prior.