“How Russia hides its planes away from Ukraine in advance – BBC September 18, 19:41 Share: Russian aviation left front-line airfields already in the summer (Photo: Getty Images) Russia did not wait for the allies to allow Ukraine to use their missiles on the territory of the Russian Federation, and in advance moved its aviation away from the front. This process has been going on for several months, writes the military correspondent of the BBC Pavlo Aksyonov. NV publishes material”, — write on: ua.news
How Russia hides its planes away from Ukraine in advance — BBC Russian aviation left front-line airfields in the summer (Photo: Getty Images)
Russia did not wait for the allies to allow Ukraine to use its missiles on the territory of the Russian Federation, and in advance moved its aviation away from the front. This process has been going on for several months, writes the military correspondent of the BBC Pavlo Aksyonov. NV publishes material as part of an information partnership.
In recent days, the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, which previously moved its warships from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, is now leaving its base for the second time in a week.
Thus, missiles, which Ukraine cannot even use against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation, are already working as a real deterrent.
The very existence of the threat forces the Russians to reduce the intensity of combat aviation.
On the other hand, since this threat is stretched over time, Russian forces are adapting to it and developing new methods of strikes.
Russia withdrew the Su-34 and helicopters
In an interview with CNN journalist Farid Zakaria, Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Sunday that there was no permission to strike with long-range missiles on the territory of Russia.
He also said that Russia had moved its planes: “Now Russia has started moving its planes from a hundred kilometers, a hundred and fifty, and three hundred to five hundred.”
Judging by Zelenskyi’s words, the airfields were the most important target that the Ukrainians were going to hit.
This is true: Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers use planning aerial bombs against Ukrainian troops, which cause significant damage.
According to a Ukrainian OSINT investigator who writes in X under the nickname Tatarigami, Russia began transferring aircraft from airfields in the front-line zone to remote positions as early as June.
By mid-July, he said, combat aircraft and helicopters, as well as the infrastructure for their maintenance, had been transferred.
In other words, if Joe Biden had approved the use of Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS on September 13, it would not have been a disaster for Russian military aviation — most of the planes were based outside the range of the missiles.
Since the process of decisions about missiles was stretched over time, this gave the Russian Federation the opportunity to adapt the work of aviation in advance.
A Russian military expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC that the aircraft was indeed thrown over a distance of more than 300 km.
At the same time, according to the expert, Russian aviation, which is based outside the range of missiles, is additionally protected – in Russia, they are not sure that in the future the threats will not spread over a greater distance.
Novorossiysk: fleet training or evacuation?
On September 14, an OSINT researcher who writes in the X social network under the nickname H I Sutton published satellite images of a parking lot in Tsemeska Bay. From these photos, he said, it appeared that the Russian ships that were there had left her.
According to the investigator, this could be related to the danger of using Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles against them.
There really was such a danger – in the event that Ukraine received permission to strike targets on the territory of Russia, and also if the Armed Forces had missiles with a full, and not a reduced, range.
A range of 500 km would allow missiles to be launched over territory controlled by Ukrainian forces. And the 250-kilometer missiles would have to be launched very dangerously close to the shores of the annexed Crimea.
However, judging by the information from open sources, Ukraine still does not have a long-range version of the missiles, nor a permit to use them on Russian territory.
The BBC studied satellite images of the base in Novorossiysk and found out that the ship composition in the parking lot often changes.
On August 15, it was filled with ships, and a week later, on August 23, it was empty.
The mass release of ships into the open sea caught the lens of the satellite on September 11. The parking lot was empty the next day. And on September 16, two days after H I Sutton told about the departure of the fleet, ships appeared on it again.
One of the versions, expressed by several commentators at once, is that the fleet was participating in naval exercises and left the base for this purpose.
However, as the Russian military expert added, the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, like the aviation, is in constant motion, maneuvering and entering various ports and bays on the Black Sea, including not only the Russian coast, but also Crimea.