Russia fears Ukrainian unmanned aircraft capabilities: military expert Zgurets on accumulation of Russian bombers at Olenya airbase

He spoke about this on Espreso TV.

“We relied on publicly available satellite images from May 15, where we see an excessive concentration of almost a third of Russian strategic bombers. These are both Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, which are located at the Olenya airbase on the Kola Peninsula of the Russian Federation. This actually suggests that Russia is afraid to bring its strategic bombers closer to any other airfields, given the capabilities of Ukrainian unmanned aircraft, which have increased significantly. Now, indeed, one third of Russia's Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 are concentrated at the Olenya airbase,” emphasized Zgurets.

According to him, it is more likely that they fear for their safety. As for the options when Russia used Tu-22M3, we know that on April 19, a Russian Tu-22M3 was shot down by the Ukrainian S-200 system as it was returning to the airport in Mozdok.

“Russia is indeed trying to redeploy its aviation components. But this trend is extremely important in order to actually transfer it to the frontline aviation of the Russian Federation, because the enemy is increasingly using UAVs. Therefore, the area within 200 kilometers where such airfields are located should be a priority for strikes by our long-range weapons. Accordingly, the question arises of convincing Ukraine's partners that weapons with a range of 200-300 km should be directed at Russian airfields where bombers or frontline fighters are located,” the military expert said.

Zgurets added that the Kola Peninsula is a bit far away, but in the long run, we should not set ourselves tasks that cannot be fulfilled.

• On May 19, Defense Express reported, citing satellite imagery, that as of May 15, 2024, 12 Tu-95MS and 13 Tu-22M3 strategic bombers were spotted at the Olenya airfield in the Murmansk region of the Russian Federation.