Ukraine keeps eating into Russia’s irreplaceable Tu-95 fleet—12 bombers now lost or damaged
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Russia is gradually losing its Tu-95 strategic bombers, which play a vital role in its missile strikes against Ukraine. According to The National Interest , Moscow's main problem in this situation is that these aircraft are virtually impossible to replace.
The Tu-95 was developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau: the first aircraft flew in 1952, and serial production began in 1956. More than 500 of these bombers were built. Production of the modernized Tu-95MS version resumed in 1981, but ceased completely in 1992.
Before the full-scale invasion, Russia had approximately 58 Tu-95MS aircraft. According to Oryx data cited by the author, Ukraine destroyed at least eight of these aircraft and damaged three more. This represents approximately 18% of the pre-war fleet. Russian aviation suffered particularly severe losses during Operation Spider's Web in June 2025. Ukrainian forces destroyed eight bombers. Ukrainian drones subsequently also attacked aircraft at the Engels Air Base in the Saratov Region.
The author notes that restoring Russia's lost fleet will be extremely difficult. Unlike the United States, which has reserve B-52s and dedicated storage facilities for older aircraft, Moscow has no comparable stockpile of Tu-95s. Furthermore, production of these aircraft ceased more than three decades ago.
This is precisely why, according to the publication, the destruction of each such aircraft is significant not only because of its combat use, but also because of the impossibility of quickly compensating for losses. "The Tu-95s will remain high-cost targets that Russia cannot afford to lose because they are simply irreplaceable," the publication states.
Russian officials have stated their intention to repair damaged bombers. However, the author of the article believes that a full replacement of the destroyed aircraft is practically unachievable for Russia. The Tu-95MS missile-carrying variant entered service in the 1980s and remains a core component of Russia’s long-range aviation force. It can carry Kh-55-family cruise missiles and has been adapted to employ newer long-range weapons used in repeated Russian strikes against Ukraine. Although more than 500 Tu-95-family aircraft were produced during the Soviet period, production ended decades ago. Russia therefore relies on maintaining, modernizing and cannibalizing its surviving aircraft rather than replacing destroyed airframes with newly built bombers.
That makes Ukrainian strikes on the fleet fundamentally different from attacks on weapons Russia can continue manufacturing in large numbers. Russia began the full-scale invasion with only a fraction of the hundreds of Tu-95s originally manufactured still operational, making each permanent loss increasingly difficult to absorb.
The Tu-95 is often compared with the US Air Force’s B-52 Stratofortress. Both are Cold War-era strategic bombers that have remained operational for decades through repeated modernization programs, although the two aircraft use substantially different propulsion and design concepts.
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