Air Force
Ukraine says Neptune missiles destroyed two Su-34s at Marinovka airfield in Volgograd; Zelensky: an Iskander launcher was hit too
Ukraine’s General Staff says Neptune coastal missiles destroyed two Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers at Marinovka airfield near Volgograd on October 29. Zelensky added that an Iskander launcher was hit and asked partners for Patriot interceptors.
Two Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers were destroyed on Thursday, October 29, at Marinovka airfield, near the settlement of Oktyabrsky in the Volgograd region, by Ukrainian Neptune missiles, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. The General Staff attributes the strike to the Navy’s Neptune coastal missile systems and says the destruction of the two aircraft is “confirmed”. The claim is Kyiv’s own; Russia has not confirmed the losses.
A little later President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post that he had received a report of two missile strikes. In the same post he added that besides the two Su-34s an Iskander launcher was hit, and thanked “the guys” for the result.
The target: the guided-bomb aircraft
The General Staff stresses that the Su-34 is the main platform for dropping guided aerial bombs and can carry up to 8 tonnes of combat load. Destroying such aircraft, it notes, limits the enemy’s ability to hit areas near the front, civilian infrastructure and the forward positions of Ukrainian soldiers with guided bombs. The value of each Su-34 is estimated at about $50 million, or $100 million for the two.
It is not the first time in the last month that Kyiv has announced Su-34 losses on Russian soil. In mid-October Zelensky spoke of four Su-34s destroyed by Neptunes at Borisoglebsk in the Voronezh region, as we reported at the time; earlier in the month the SBU reported a strike on a Su-35 and a Su-34 in Adygea.
A warning about new ballistic attacks
Zelensky linked the strike to what he called the country’s “anti-ballistic work”. Another aspect of it, he wrote, is the packages of air-defence missiles, mainly for Patriot systems, that partners can provide. He added that intelligence information points to preparation of new Russian ballistic strikes, that Ukraine needs the capabilities to shoot them down and that Kyiv is waiting for “the relevant decisions”.
The day before, the Ukrainian president had described missiles for the Patriots as Ukraine’s main shortfall for intercepting the Russian ballistic threat, on which Russia is betting heavily before winter, adding that Ukraine is receiving on average 12 Patriot missiles a month. He had asked that deliveries through the PURL programme not be delayed on the American side, after reports of US threats to freeze it.
