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Russia’s Most Dangerous Jets Are Parked In The Open A Hundred Miles From Ukraine. But Kyiv Needs Washington’s Permission To Strike Them.
Voronezh Malshevo air base, in southern Russia 100 miles from the border with Ukraine, might be the most important—and most vulnerable—target in Russia.
But it’s seemingly off of Ukraine’s list of targets for now.
From the base, Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers belonging to the Russian air force’s 47th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment fly daily sorties lobbing powerful glide bombs at Ukrainian troops and civilians from 25 miles away or farther.
The carnage is staggering. “It takes only minutes for a [Sukhoi] jet to reach the launch area near the border and then return to the base,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained. “The large number of jets stationed at the airfield enables the simultaneous deployment of bombs, allowing multiple targets in Ukrainian territory to be engaged at once.”
The regiment’s dozens of Sukhoi Su-34s—possibly representing around half of Russia’s active fleet of the supersonic, twin-engine fighter-bombers—routinely park out out in the open on the tarmac of the recently renovated base.
They’re within range of Ukraine’s best deep strike weapon—its American-made Army Tactical Missile System rockets. “Ukraine could potentially incapacitate the entire operational fleet stationed there if permitted to conduct such a strike,” Frontelligence Insight noted.
But the administration of Pres. Joe Biden hasn’t yet given the Ukrainian government permission to aim the ATACMS at Voronezh Malshevo. And so, for now, the Su-34s at Voronezh Malshevo bomb with near impunity—lobbing a significant percentage of the roughly 100 glide bombs the Russians drop on Ukrainian positions and cities every day, killing soldiers and civilians alike.
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