Russia loses about 13 warplanes in a month

Russia’s military aviation has lost about a dozen aircraft in roughly five weeks, including at least seven Su-34 fighter-bombers destroyed on the ground by Ukrainian missiles and drones, a Tu-95MS strategic bomber and two Su-30SM fighters in crashes, and a Su-57 stealth fighter that reportedly burned out during an engine start.

The Ukrainian open-source project Oko Gora counted 11 Russian fighter aircraft and one helicopter lost in October alone, with two more Su-34s partially damaged. Adding the Tu-95MS that crashed on Sept. 29 brings the tally to about 13 airframes since late September. Russia has confirmed only the two crashes during training flights and has not acknowledged losses from Ukrainian strikes.

The heaviest losses fell on the Su-34, the jet Russia uses most to drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities and front-line positions. On Oct. 4, drones from Ukraine’s SBU security service hit a Su-34 and a Su-35 fighter at Khanskaya air base in Russia’s Republic of Adygea, about 500 km (310 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, along with an ammunition depot. On the night of Oct. 14-15, Ukrainian Navy Neptune missiles struck Borisoglebsk air base in the Voronezh region, and satellite imagery showed four Su-34s destroyed and two more badly damaged. On Oct. 29, another Neptune strike destroyed two more Su-34s at Marinovka air base in the Volgograd region, with satellite images showing the wreckage at their parking spots.

That puts confirmed Su-34 losses for the month at seven destroyed, or nine counting the two damaged at Borisoglebsk. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR said Russia had about 140 Su-34s of all versions in service as of Oct. 22, and that Russian industry delivered 22 new ones between October 2025 and October 2026, Ukrinform reported. October’s losses alone equal about a third of that annual output.

On Sept. 29, a Tu-95MS bomber crashed on takeoff near Ukrainka air base in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East, killing six of the seven crew members. The Russian Defense Ministry said the aircraft was on a training flight without weapons. Russia no longer builds the Tu-95, which it uses to launch Kh-101 cruise missiles at Ukraine, and it was the first Tu-95MS lost in a crash since 2015.

On Oct. 21, a Su-30SM crashed during a training flight in the Kaliningrad region, and the Defense Ministry said both crew ejected. Russian and Ukrainian outlets reported that a second Su-30SM was lost the same day. Days later, the Russian Knights, the Russian Air Force’s aerobatic display team, announced the deaths of two of its pilots, Col. Oleg Yerofeyev and Lt. Col. Vladimir Kochetov, without saying how they died, and Ukrainian analysts have linked their deaths to the second crash. Russian authorities have not confirmed the connection.

The most unusual loss came on Oct. 29 at Akhtubinsk, the Russian Air Force’s main flight-test center in the Astrakhan region. A Su-57 fifth-generation fighter caught fire during an engine start and burned completely, the Ukrainian open-source channel Absolutely Reliable Source said, publishing satellite images of a burn scar on the airfield. Russia has not confirmed the loss. If verified, it would be the fourth Su-57 lost or damaged this year, after a Ukrainian drone strike in April and a crash near Moscow in July that Russia blamed on a technical malfunction.

The tallies also include helicopters. On Oct. 30, Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade said it destroyed a Mi-8 transport helicopter in the Luhansk region with two Hornet attack drones after the helicopter landed.

The losses span thousands of kilometers, from Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea to the Far East. The open-source project Oryx had visually confirmed 205 Russian aircraft destroyed or damaged since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, with the Su-34 the most-lost type at 48.