Russia deploys Tu-160 bombers once traded by Ukraine for gas

The Schemes investigative journalism project reports.

The journalists analyzed data from international aviation registries, the serial numbers of the aircraft specified in the agreement on their transfer to Russia, and compared the information with the bombers' numbers recorded by the Main Intelligence Directorate.

Investigators also found videos and photos of former Ukrainian bombers in open sources: Russian television reports, publications, and social media.

In addition, the journalists found out the identities of the Russian pilots assigned to fly the bombers handed over by Ukraine. According to the Schemes, these are pilots whom Ukrainian intelligence believes to be involved in massive missile strikes against Ukraine.

In total, the Schemes installed 10 strategic aircraft transferred by Ukraine to Russia - seven Tu-160s and three Tu-95MS. The Russians gave the planes new names: The Tu-160 was named Nikolai Kuznetsov (previously a Ukrainian aircraft with tail number 10), Vasily Senko (11), Alexander Novikov (12), Vladimir Sudets (15), Alexei Plokhov (16), Andrei Tupolev (18), Igor Sikorsky (22), and the Tu-95MS was named Krasnoyarsk, Sevastopol, and Izborsk.

Of these aircraft, at least six Tu-160s are in service with the Russian army.

In total, the intergovernmental agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Valeriy Pustovoitenko and Vladimir Putin provided for the transfer of eight Tu-160 heavy bombers, three Tu-95MS, and 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles.

Russian long-range aviation commander Sergei Kobylash was interviewed against the backdrop of the plane, which was named Nikolai Kuznetsov in Russia. In 2024, Ukraine served him with a notice of suspicion in absentia for commanding the attack on Okhmatdyt.

The other Russian pilot is Oleg Skitsky, who was flying the Vasyl Senko aircraft. According to the Schemes, Skitsky is a member of the 22nd Air Force, which the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine considers responsible for numerous casualties and destruction in Ukraine as a result of missile strikes. Earlier, the Schemes identified him as the commander of the 121st heavy bomber regiment within this division. He supposedly led the attack on Kyiv on April 28, 2022, when a missile hit the house of Radio Liberty journalist Vira Hyrich.

Another Russian, Alexei Pechkarev, is identified as the commander of the Izborsk Tu-95MS aircraft. He is in charge of the combat training department of the 22nd Air Division, and in the summer of 2022, at a rally in support of the invasion of Ukraine, he said that Russian soldiers “are crushing the revived Nazism on land and in the air.”

According to journalists, in exchange for these aircraft and 575 Kh-55 cruise missiles, Russia wrote off Ukraine's gas debts amounting to $275 million. Investigators emphasized that the aircraft and missiles were transferred without the approval of the Verkhovna Rada, and the value of the weaponry was understated by 10 times. This conclusion was reached by the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on the embezzlement in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the undermining of the state's defense capability between 2004 and 2017.

Remarks by the second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma

At the same time, the Schemes received a comment from the second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, who stated that if strategic bombers remained in service, it would not help much in defending Ukraine against Russia.

“Russia has air defense systems capable of countering Kh-55 class missiles, while huge and relatively low-speed bombers would have been easy prey for Russian weapons in the first days of the war, both in the air and at airfields. Strategic weapons could hardly help solve Ukraine's strategic tasks, and they definitely did not fit into the Ukrainian scale. We had no missile test sites. We didn't even have enough territory to operate these weapons, because strategic weapons require strategic space,” Kuchma wrote.

• Earlier, in August 2023, Schemes journalists claimed that the Russian army was shelling Ukrainian cities with Kh-55 cruise missiles, which Ukraine gave to Russia in 1999 for gas debts.