Earlier this summer, Ukraine had the opportunity to destroy dozens of Russian aircraft at the Malshevo air base near Voronezh in Russia. Kyiv asked for permission from the United States to strike the base with ATACMS missiles, but Washington banned it, fearing an escalation, Hromadske reports.
According to Forbes, earlier this summer, the 47th Guards Bomber Regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces parked dozens of Su-34 fighter-bombers out of about a hundred in service in Russia. These aircraft are the carriers of the guided bombs that the Russian army has been using so extensively.
Since the Malshevo airbase is quite defensible, Ukraine asked the United States for permission to strike this airfield with ATACMS missiles, which would be virtually impossible to shoot down.
But Washington refused this request because of the threat of escalation. Watching the negotiations between Kyiv and Washington on the use of ATACMS, the Russians made a rare preemptive decision – they moved Su-34s from the Malshevo air base and other border airfields.
Currently, most Russian Su-34s are stationed at bases hundreds of kilometers from the border. They are not invulnerable to Ukrainian drones, but they are well protected from most of them. Since the most powerful ATACMS missiles have a range of up to 290 kilometers, Russia’s most valuable targets are too far away to hit.
Forbes notes that to reduce the number of Russian air strikes, Ukraine needs to destroy dozens of Russian bombers. The fact that Russia has deployed them at airfields far from the border makes this task more difficult.
