Air Force
The fixed-wing combat arm within the Aerospace Forces — fighter, strike, army, transport and long-range aviation.
Broad area of activity
Operating from Russian airspace across the theatre.
Notable history
Failed to suppress Ukrainian air defences in 2022 and was pushed back from the front; adapted with mass standoff attack — above all the UMPK glide-bomb campaign carried by Su-34s from 2023 — while suffering publicly documented losses of scarce special-mission aircraft in 2024.
Strengths
Airframe and munitions mass; the glide-bomb adaptation converted a stalemated air war into persistent battlefield pressure at low risk.
Limitations
Still no air superiority after years of war; vulnerable to air-defence ambushes; attrition of crews and of scarce enablers like AEW&C aircraft.
Subordinate & associated
- Long-Range AviationFormation
Key events
Avdiivka falls; Kursk incursion
Russia takes Avdiivka at heavy cost and presses in Donbas; Ukraine answers with a surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region.