Russia still has about 70 Su-34s: expert Kryvolap on state of Russian military and civil aviation

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"They still have a large number of aircraft there. Russia still has about 70 Su-34s and around 100 Su-35s. As for spare parts reserves for the Russians, they should be established because it's military aviation. In civil aviation, money has displaced Russian-made aircraft. The Tu-24, Tu-214, and Il-planes have been displaced because, in terms of commercial characteristics, they cannot compete with Airbus and Boeing. If at the beginning of the hot phase of the war in Russia there were 1100-1150 aircraft capable of flying, when they counted the planes more accurately, they found that there were only 720 foreign aircraft left," noted the aviation expert.

According to him, there was even a time when Ukrainian An-24s were the main aircraft with no issues, and they provided a significant passenger flow in Russia.

"It cannot be that civil aviation, cargo transportation, everything was bad, and military aviation was all good. That doesn't happen. As for the recent crash of the Il-76, I don't understand what should happen for an engine to detach. It's as if there should be heavy combat mosquitos to rip off the engine like that," commented Kostiantyn Kryvolap.

• On the evening of February 23, the Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian A-50U aircraft. Instead, Russia claimed that the aircraft crashed, causing the reeds to catch fire