Russia is using Tu-160 strategic bombers that Ukraine gave it 25 years ago - media
The Russian Federation is using Tu-160 strategic bombers that Ukraine transferred to Moscow as part of an agreement between the two governments in 1999 in exchange for repayment of debts for Russian gas.
According to Censor.NET, this is stated in the Schemes investigation (a project of Radio Liberty).
The journalists found this out by analyzing the serial numbers of the aircraft in the agreement of those times, which they found in the archive, data from international aviation registers and comparing them with the numbers of bombers used by the Russian Federation, which was recorded by the Main Intelligence Directorate.
How many Tu-160s are in service in Russia?
At least six of the transferred Tu-160 aircraft are in the Russian army's combat inventory. The journalists also identified Russian pilots who were assigned to fly the transferred Ukrainian bombers and who are now being called by Ukrainian intelligence to be involved in massive missile strikes against Ukraine.
In total, Schemes identified ten Ukrainian strategic aircraft transferred by Ukraine to Russia.
Ukrainian bombers under new names
The investigation says that these are Tu-160s that have been given new names in Russia: "'Nikolai Kuznetsov' (previously it was a Ukrainian aircraft with the tail number '10'), 'Vasily Senko' ('11'), 'Alexander Novikov' ('12'), 'Vladimir Sudets' ('15'), 'Alexey Plokhov' ('16'), 'Andrei Tupolev' ('18'), 'Igor Sikorsky' ('22').
At least six of them are currently in service with the Russian army. The journalists found the aircraft numbers in an archival agreement between Ukraine and Russia, analyzed them using the international aviation registry, and compared them with the numbers of bombers that, according to the DIU, are used by the Russian army.
Among the aircraft handed over by the Ukrainian authorities, Schemes also found three Tu-95MS: Krasnoyarsk, Sevastopol, Izborsk, the new names Ukrainian bombers received in Russia.
The journalists found videos and photos of the former Ukrainian bombers in open sources: stories on Russian television, publications, and social media.
In particular, the plane, which in Ukraine had the tail number "10" and in Russia was named "Nikolai Kuznetsov," was previously interviewed by Russian long-range aviation commander Sergei Kobylash, who was notified in absentia by Ukrainian investigators in 2024 of suspicion for commanding the attack on Okhmatdet.
Identification of Russian pilots of former Ukrainian bombers
Journalists also identified Russian pilots of former Ukrainian bombers.
One of them is Oleg Skitsky, who flew the plane that had the tail number "11" in Ukraine and was named "Vasily Senko" in Russia.
According to the investigation, Skitsky is a serviceman of the 22nd Air Force, which the DIU calls "responsible for numerous casualties and destruction in Ukraine" due to missiles launched by them.
"Soldier Oleksiy Pechkaryov was previously identified as the commander of the Tu-95MS Izborsk aircraft, which was transferred to Russia by the Ukrainian authorities. During the full-scale invasion, he was the head of the combat training department of the 22nd Air Force. In the summer of 2022, at one of the rallies in support of the so-called AFU, he said that Russian "soldiers on land and in the air are crushing the revived Nazism," the investigation says.
In 1999, in exchange for the transferred weapons, Russia canceled part of the gas debt.
The Schemes journalists also found in the archive an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine headed by Valerii Pustovoitenko and the Russian government under Vladimir Putin, signed in Yalta in 1999.
According to the agreement, Kyiv handed over eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS heavy bombers, as well as 575 X-55 cruise missiles to Moscow. In return, Russia compensated Ukraine for its debt for Russian gas - in the amount of 275 million hryvnias. This is the determined value of the transferred equipment.
According to journalists, the transfer of aircraft and missiles took place without the approval of the Verkhovna Rada.
The investigation also states that the cost of the weapons was understated by ten times. This is stated in the conclusions of the Temporary Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada to investigate the facts of embezzlement in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and undermining the state's defense capability in the period from 2004 to 2017.
Commentary by the former leadership of Ukraine
Former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma said in a commentary to Schemes that even if strategic bombers remained in Ukraine's arsenal, it would not help much in defending against Russia.
Russia has air defense systems capable of countering X-55 missiles, while the huge size and relatively low-speed bombers would have been easy prey for Russian weapons in the early 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 explained.
