On 28 August, a Ukrainian drone strike reportedly seriously damaged another one of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ (VKS) long-range Tupolev Tu-95MS bomber aircraft. After-action assessments indicate that the damage from the Ukrainian attack, which took off part of one wing of the bomber, is not repairable.
An image of the aircraft published on the Exilenova+ open-source intelligence X page shows the right wing is severed between the inboard and outboard Kuznetsov NK-12 counter-rotating turboprop engines.
Tu-95. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Tu-95 Bear Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Another image from the Strategic Aviation Telegram channel shows the same level of damage.
These images also indicate signs of a fire, which is significant because a good portion of the aircraft’s internal fuel load is carried in these wing tanks.
The evidence of a fire likely means that the aircraft was hit while carrying a full fuel load.
This indicates that this Tu-95MS was an operational aircraft and not one of the several non-serviceable airframes that have been placed out in the open at VKS aerodromes to act as decoys.
As far back as 2023, Russia had begun placing large numbers of large-diameter rubber tires on the wings of their bombers. This was done to confuse the optical seeker and guidance systems of some Ukrainian drones used at the time.
Prior to the 28 August attack, the VKS had only 38 Tu-95MS in operational condition – out of a full fleet of 47 aircraft. This damage being as severe as it is, it now seems that the number of these bombers remaining in VKS inventory is down to 37 aircraft. There are also only 13 Tu-160s currently in service, the only other long-range heavy bomber in the force.
This was the second Tu-95MS destroyed at the Engels-2 airbase in the past six weeks. The base is located almost 500 miles from the Ukraine border and was previously hit in July when another Tu-95 was also taken out of action. In this attack, the aircraft’s tail section was completely torn from the fuselage.
Why Losing This Aircraft Is a Serious Situation for Russia
The Tu-95MS (NATO Codename Bear) is not just the oldest of the bomber models in the VKS fleet. It is the heavy-duty workhorse for Moscow’s campaign of striking and terrorizing Ukrainian civilian population centers.
It has been striking and destroying Ukraine’s power plants, hospitals, apartment buildings, and cities throughout the war
The other two bombers still in operation with the VKS are the Tu-22M Backfire and the Tu-160 Blackjack. The Tu-95MS is the primary platform for carrying and firing the air-launched Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile (ALCM). The only other aircraft capable of launching this weapon is the Tu-160.
Each Kh-101 costs US $2-2.4 million per unit. It is guided to its target by inertial navigation with an on-board Doppler radar, and there are also terrain-matching updates that compare what the missile’s optical seeker is seeing with digital imagery stored on-board the missile’s guidance computer.
This terrain-matching is engaged once the missile enters the terminal phase of its operational range, which is 2,175 miles. As of last year, it was beginning to be equipped with the SP-504 electronic warfare protection system. This system generates false radar targets and can also deploy flares to decoy air defense units.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claims that since the beginning of this year, its anti-missile defenses have intercepted close to 88 percent of the Kh-101, Kh-55 and Kh-555 cruise missiles fired by the VKS.
Limiting Factors
In its heyday, the Tu-95MS could carry and fire up to eight Kh-101s or another comparably sized cruise missile. But the aircraft has been out of production for more than 30 years, and the airframe’s wear and tear now requires the VKS to limit the aircraft’s weapons load to no more than four missiles.
There are also a limited number of facilities in Russia where these aircraft can be serviced or overhauled. It also bears repeating that approximately 34 percent of Russia’s bombers capable of carrying these larger cruise missiles were taken out of service by the June 2025 Operation Spider Web.
The Tu-95MS aircraft destroyed at the Engels base were hit by a Ukrainian long-range drone called the MICH 2000 that has only been in production since 2023. Each unit costs $48,000 in the basic configuration, $2,000 less than the original Chinese ZTK-150 attack drone it is based on, which retails for $50,000.
At this price, destroying one Tu-95MS costs Ukraine the equivalent of one-forty-thousandth of the bomber’s cost.
The drone has a range of over 1,200 miles and is now being produced at a rate of more than 6,000 per year, with a target production rate of 10,000 per annum.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
