A historic aerial victory: Ukrainian forces take down a Russian bomber

On Monday, April 19, information emerged about the crash of a Russian bomber, the Tu-22M3. The aircraft, previously used for attacks on Ukraine, was destroyed during its return to its home base in Russia.

One theory even suggested the occurrence of so-called "friendly fire." However, the Commander of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, confirmed that the Ukrainians were behind the attack. He also reported that this was the first time a Tu-22M3 had been eliminated directly in the sky. The Russian machine crashed in the vicinity of the city of Stavropol, Russia, after launching an attack on the Odessa region.

"It should be noted that this is the first successful destruction of a strategic bomber in the air during a combat mission during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine," stated Kyiv intelligence service.

For now, the exact means used to destroy the Tu-22M3 bomber are not known. Ukrainian military intelligence only reported briefly that the enemy aircraft Tu-22MZ was shot down about 299 km from Ukraine with the same means that earlier brought down the Russian aircraft for detecting and controlling long-range radars A-50.

It is worth mentioning that, in the case of the latter, there is unofficial talk about the possible use of the Patriot system.

The Tu-22M3 bombers, which Russia regularly uses to conduct raids on Ukraine, can carry, among others, Raduga Kh-22 missiles. These missiles are challenging to shoot down due to their high speed, reaching speeds close to 3 Mach, or about 3600 km/h. Furthermore, the Kh-22 missiles have a range of up to 500 km. The Tu-22M3 is also compatible with the newer Russian missiles, Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, which have a range of up to 2000 km.

The Tu-22M3 bombers are an upgraded version of the Tu-22M. They introduced several improvements that increased the aircraft's range to around 6800 km and its maximum speed to 2300 km/h. The load capacity of the machines has also been increased.

For instance, the Tu-22M3 can carry a payload twice as large as the earlier version, the Tu-22M2, as the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) noted. The bomber is approximately 42 meters long, has a maximum wingspan of about 34 meters, and stands 11 meters tall. Its maximum takeoff weight is 126,380 kg, of which 24,000 kg can be weapons (including Kh-22 Raduga and Kh-47M2 Kinzhal).