Russia is using strategic bombers Tu-160, which were handed over to them by Ukraine 25 years ago.

Russian occupiers are utilizing Ukrainian strategic bombers Tu-160, which they acquired under a 1999 agreement that involved exchanging aircraft for settling gas debts. Currently, at least six Tu-160s are operational within the Russian army and are conducting massive missile attacks. Journalists from “Schemes” (“Radio Free Europe”) analyzed the serial numbers of the aircraft in the agreement, data from international aviation registries, and compared them with the numbers of bombers being used by Russia.

According to the agreement found by journalists in the archives, Kyiv transferred eight heavy bombers Tu-160, three Tu-95MS, and 575 X-55 cruise missiles to Moscow. In return, Russia was supposed to cancel its gas debt, which amounted to $275 million. The contract was signed in Yalta in 1999 between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, led by Valeriy Pustovoitenko, and the Russian government under Vladimir Putin. According to the report from the then-commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Viktor Strelnikov, transporting all the equipment to Russia required 124 railway cars.

It is noteworthy that the Verkhovna Rada did not approve the transfer of missiles and aircraft. The temporary investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada completed its investigation in 2018 regarding the embezzlement in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the undermining of defense capabilities from 2004 to 2017. The commission established that the value of the transferred aircraft and missiles was understated by ten times. Ukraine received $2.5 billion.

Journalists managed to identify three Tu-95MS that belonged to Ukraine. All photos of the former Ukrainian aircraft were found by investigators in stories on Russian television, publications, and social media. For instance, against the backdrop of a former Ukrainian aircraft with the tail number “10” (which the Russians named “Nikolai Kuznetsov”), the commander of the Russian long-range aviation, Sergey Kobylash, gave an interview to propagandists. In 2024, the SBU notified him in absentia of suspicion for commanding the shelling of the children's hospital “Okhmatdyt.”

Investigators also found other Russian pilots operating former Ukrainian bombers. In particular, there is Oleg Skitsky, who flew a bomber with the tail number “11” (the Russians named it “Vasyl Senko”). Skitsky serves in the 22nd Air Division, which the GUR considers “responsible for numerous casualties and destruction in Ukraine.” Additionally, “Schemes” believe that the pilot is the commander of the 121st Heavy Bomber Regiment and could have directed the shelling of Kyiv on April 28, 2022. At that time, a journalist from “Radio Free Europe,” Vera Gyrich, died due to a missile strike on a building.

The occupier Oleksiy Pechkarov was identified as the commander of the Tu-95MS aircraft, which was handed over to Russia by the Ukrainian authorities. In 2022, Pechkarov, as the head of the combat training department of the 22nd Air Division, told propagandists that Russian “soldiers on land and in the air are crushing the revived Nazism.” This occupier is also linked to the shelling of the “Tiras” residential complex in Odesa in 2022, which resulted in the deaths of eight people, including a pregnant woman and a three-month-old child.

Former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma commented to “Schemes” that even if the bombers had remained in Ukraine's arsenal, they would not have helped defend against Russia. According to him, the aircraft would have been easy prey for the Russians both in the air and on airfields in the early days of the war.

“Strategic weapons were unlikely to help solve Ukraine's strategic tasks, and they definitely did not fit into the Ukrainian scale. We did not have the test sites for missile testing. We did not even have sufficient territorial continuity to operate these means – as strategic weapons require strategic space,” Kuchma believes.

He noted that Ukraine considered Russia an enemy in 1999, while the West viewed it as a reliable partner.

It is worth recalling that in 2023, “Schemes” reported that Russia is shelling Ukraine with X-55 missiles, which it received from the Ukrainian government in 1999.