“Russian Federation uses Tu-160 bombers, which Ukraine gave it in the late 90s – Russia uses at least 6 Ukrainian Tu-160 bombers, transferred in 1999 for debts. The planes were handed over in exchange for repayment of a gas debt of $275 million.”, — write on: unn.ua
The army of the Russian Federation uses Ukrainian strategic bombers, which the official Kyiv transferred to Moscow within the framework of the agreement between the governments of the two countries in 1999 in exchange for repayment of debts for the consumed Russian gas
It is noted that at least six of the transferred Tu-160 aircraft are in active service with the Russian army. In total, Schemy identified ten Ukrainian strategic aircraft transferred by Ukraine to Russia.
This is the Tu-160, which was given new names in the Russian Federation: “Mykola Kuznetsov” (previously it was a Ukrainian plane with the serial number “10”), “Vasyl Senko” (“11”), “Olexander Novikov” (“12”), “Volodymyr Sudets” (“15”), “Aleksii Plokhov” (“16”), “Andrii Tupolev” (“18”), “Ihor Sikorskyi” (“22”).
The journalists found the aircraft numbers in the archival agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, analyzed them with the help of the international air registry and compared them with the numbers of the bombers, which, according to the GUR, are used by the Russian army.
Among the aircraft transferred by the authorities of Ukraine are also Tu-95MS aircraft – “Krasnoyarsk”, “Sevastopol”, “Izborsk”.
Journalists have identified Russian pilots who are now flying on former Ukrainian planes. In particular, one of them is Oleg Skytskyi, he was piloting a plane that had the serial number “11” in Ukraine, and was called “Vasyl Senko” in the Russian Federation. Skitskyi is a serviceman of the 22nd Aviation Division, which the GUR calls “responsible for numerous victims and destruction in Ukraine” due to the missiles launched by them.
“Schemy” searched the archive for an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine headed by Valery Pustovoytenko and the government of the Russian Federation under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, signed in Yalta in 1999. According to it, Kyiv transferred to Moscow eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS heavy bombers, as well as 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles. For this, Russia compensated Ukraine for the debt for Russian gas – in the amount of 275 million dollars. This is the determined cost of the transferred equipment,” the publication adds.
The transfer of aircraft and missiles took place without the approval of the Verkhovna Rada, and the cost of the weapons was understated by ten times, as stated in the conclusions of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada to conduct an investigation into the facts of embezzlement in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the undermining of the state’s defense capabilities in the period from 2004 to 2017 years.
In a comment to “Schemes”, the former president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, noted that even if strategic bombers remained in service with Ukraine, it would not significantly help in defense against the Russian Federation.
“Russia has air defense assets capable of countering X-55-class missiles, while huge-sized and relatively low-speed bombers in the early days of the war would have been easy prey for Russian weapons both in the air and on airfields.
Strategic weapons could hardly help in solving the strategic tasks of Ukraine, and they definitely did not fit into the Ukrainian scale. We did not have test sites for rockets. We didn’t even have enough territory to operate these means – because strategic weapons need strategic space,” Kuchma told the publication.
We will remind
Ukrainian intelligence has identified the personnel of the 22nd heavy bomber aviation division of Russia, involved in missile attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine.