Roman Svitan: Russian Aviation Will Be The First To Feel This Blow

• 13.11.2025, 20:52

The AFU is methodically destroying the Russian economy.

Russian aviation is in crisis: after sanctions and the loss of access to Western technology, the Su-75 and Su-57 projects are effectively frozen. Has Moscow somehow managed to put these aircraft into serial production, or are they dead projects?

About this, Charter97.org spoke to Roman Svitan, a colonel of the AFU in reserve, a military expert and flight instructor:

- The Su-75 is an aircraft designed for export, but even for the Su-57, the Russians do not have enough orders. The Su-75 can definitely be considered buried. And here it's not so much about sanctions as about the inconsistency with the declared tactical and technical data of this airplane. It does not reach the level of the fifth generation - in terms of radar, in terms of the use of composite materials (or rather, their absence), in terms of the impossibility of creating an engine that meets the requirements of the fifth generation. It is simply unrealistic.

Russia is technologically incapable of making a fifth-generation airplane without external participation - Japanese composites and American engine technologies - they will not assemble it. Therefore, we can give up here.

A Su-57 is a 4++ generation airplane with a stretch, but they are still able to create this airplane and put it into production. But buying it is a big question, just for the same reason: it does not reach the level of the fifth generation, and the point of taking the fourth generation airplane, if there are much cheaper options, especially not connected with such a hemorrhoid as the Russian Federation. That's why we can give up on it as well. For their own needs, the fourth-generation airplanes - the Russian Su-34 and Su-35 - are quite enough. "Sushka" performs the assigned functionality practically at maximum.

- Operation "Spider's Web" has caused colossal damage to the Russian Air Force - a large number of strategic aircraft were destroyed. Was Russia able to compensate for these losses?"

- A certain part of the planes is damaged. They can't repair them. The Russians have let them be dismantled - to complete other planes with the units that remained undamaged. We can consider this to be irretrievable losses for the Russians.

But the damage to the strategic aviation fleet is still small, and we need to understand that. Ukraine knocked out a certain number of airplanes from the aviation component of the nuclear triad, but did not completely shut it down. This did not bring much relief for Ukraine, as the remaining part can be effectively used for missile launches. This played into the hands of the Americans, Israelis, and Chinese - those countries that took into account the number of Russian carriers of strategic nuclear weapons. There were fewer of them, and it became easier for them. But for Ukraine it did not give any real relief.

The Russians have not used Kh-101 missiles much lately - their production has become more difficult under the sanctions. But the number of missile strikes has not decreased: Iskander, Kinzhal, Kalibr, Iskander-K and other missiles are used. The intensity of combat operations has not decreased.

The operation "Spider's Web" itself was very good and well thought out. It just had to be scaled up - to try to hit all airfields where strategic aircraft were located, including the Tu-160. The main blow came on the old Tu-95 - they are already falling apart. A strike on the Tu-160 would not have given Ukraine much relief either - it would have been a strike in the interests of the US, China or Israel.

- Russian helicopters are almost unheard of now: they appear in reports only when they fall on Russian territory. Have they suffered the same fate as tanks - when mass Ukrainian FPV drones make them almost impossible to use?

- They have. When the Russians started using helicopters en masse to stop the advance of the AFU, they started being shot down en masse on the contact line. And not only by FPV drones - mostly by air defense, short-range SAMs.

A helicopter is a very good target. Probably can't think of a better one. In audio range, video range, infrared and radio range - an ideal target. A flying tank. Imagine: a tank on the ground can be seen and destroyed, and this is a "tank" that is doing a saber dance in the air.

As helicopter pilots say, "A helicopter is the soul of a dead tank." If you see a helicopter, consider it already shot down. It is too visible: low speed, poor maneuverability.

That is why helicopters were driven away from the line of contact. But the Russians are now using them very successfully - against Ukrainian drones. They have created a helicopter air defense system at altitudes of up to a kilometer. They work on our drones very cheaply - with a cannon or a machine gun. The cost of shooting down a drone is minimal.

That is what Ukraine lacks now: the AFU needs helicopters to fight drones. This is a very effective tool.

- What should be done to "finish off" Russian aviation? What goods and technologies should be further restricted in order to finally deprive Moscow of the ability to produce modern combat aircraft?

- There is no point in dealing only with aviation here - we need to solve the problem comprehensively.

First, we need to destroy the places where fuel, aviation kerosene, is produced. There are only about ten refineries in Russia that produce aviation kerosene in the required volumes. They need to be destroyed - then they will simply have no fuel left. Airplanes and helicopters will not fly without kerosene. One Tu-160 per flight "drinks" almost three railway tanks - 150-180 tons.

The second thing is to destroy the production facilities themselves. Kazan aircraft plant and other enterprises are convenient targets for drones, missiles and saboteurs. Sometimes special services can do more damage than a missile.

Sanctions pressure is already restricting Russia's access to high-tech components, which prevents them from building a fifth-generation airplane. They will be able to stamp out fourth generation airplanes as long as they are not directly hit. To completely shut down Russia's ability to produce military hardware, you have to hit the economy - the oil and gas sector. Two-thirds of Russia's budget, including military spending, comes from oil and gas revenues. It was the inability to maintain defense production that once collapsed the USSR.

Now Ukraine, starting this August, is methodically destroying the Russian economy. And this will have the most serious effect - including on Russian aviation. Aviation will be the first to feel the blow.