Russia overloading Tu-95MS bombers amid heavy losses to strategic airpower — expert

Aviation expert Kostiantyn Kryvolap said this in an interview with Espreso TV.

“Today, the Russians are already reaching the extreme limits of their capabilities. When we talk about strategic aviation planes, after the SBU's Spider's Web operation, their capabilities have significantly decreased. In previous attacks, the Russians only deployed six Tu-95MS planes, each carrying six cruise missiles. This indicates that they are overloading these planes in the hope that they will make it to the airbases. Now, they need significantly more aircraft. They are now flying from Olenya to the Caspian Sea for launch points and then returning to the Olenya airbase. They are afraid to land at Engels now. They don’t understand how many such great trucks there are across Russia. Also, the Russians are forced to hide their Tu-160 strategic bombers at the Anadyr airbase because there are no routes for trucks to that base,” Kryvolap explained.

The expert also noted that the Russians continue their tactics of intimidating the population of Ukraine.

“Using six cruise missiles on the Tu-95MS is just insane loading for its wing. These planes are not even designed to launch 2-4 missiles, so six cruise missiles is very difficult. It’s also worth noting that the Russians continue their old tactic of creating panic so that the population of Ukraine never forgets to be afraid. Accordingly, there is a scattered number of UAVs and decoy targets, and on the other hand, there is a concentration of strikes on specific objects,” he added.

What is known about the SBU’s Spider's Web operation:

On June 1, 2025, the Ukrainian Security Service conducted a major operation called Spider's Web aimed at destroying Russian bomber aviation. It is known that 40 aircraft were damaged.

According to the Security Service, the estimated value of Russia's strategic aviation affected by the special operation amounts to 7 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that all terrorist attacks at military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions were repelled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked SBU Head Vasyl Maliuk for the operation’s results. He noted that the “office” of the SBU operation in Russia was located right next to the FSB administration in one of the regions. A total of 117 drones were used in the operation.

The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Kovalenko, later reported that at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed and even more were damaged in the large-scale SBU operation.