Russian Jets Wear Out As They Drop 5,000 Glide Bombs A Month. Ukraine Can Make Them Wear Out Faster.

Kyiv and allies could sanction and blow up Russian aerospace suppliers.

A Sukhoi Su-34 drops a UMPK during a test. Russian defense ministry photo

The Russian air force’s hundreds of Sukhoi fighters play an important role in Russia’s 45-month wider war on Ukraine. Lobbing thousands of UMPK precision glide bombs a month from as far away as 45 miles, the fighters pummel Ukrainian defenses, softening them up for infantry and mechanized assaults.

Ukrainian air defenses struggle to shoot down the Sukhoi Su-30s and Su-34s at that distance. But there’s another way Ukraine and its allies can chip away at the Russian air force—and potentially blunt the impact of the glide bombing campaign.

They can target, with sanctions and drones, the surprisingly fragile supply chain that Sukhoi depends on to produce new fighters. That’s the encouraging conclusion of a new report from the Royal United Services Institute in London.