The Ukrainian Air Force, created on March 17, 1992, inherited three (!) Air armies from the Soviet Union, which allowed the country to become the strongest in Europe and the fourth in the world by this indicator.
A little about what the Ukrainians received on the balance sheet from the USSR. Fighters - more than 340 units, front-line bombers - 150, heavy long-range aviation bombers - 96, including 19 "White Swans" Tu-160, about 100 copies of the Su-25 assault and a lot of motley equipment, such as 35 winged aircraft Yak-38PP related to electronic warfare. To this number we add seven regiments of air defense fighters and 900 rotorcraft of army aviation. From the very beginning of this story, it was clear that it would be absolutely impossible for a modest Ukraine to remain alone with such an air armada - defense costs only for maintaining equipment in a combat state would exceed all conceivable limits. What resources the Air Force of this state possessed at the end of 2013 - beginning of 2014, perhaps, is not known even in Ukraine itself.
Mi-8MT, which burned down near Kramatorsk. First victim among helicopters.
Data from different sources varies greatly. For example, according to The Military Balance, there were less than 500 winged aircraft in the Air Force and Army Aviation. Other sources claim that there were about 180 aircraft and helicopters in Ukraine (excluding the mothballed equipment). In any case, the number of military equipment for over 20 years in Ukraine has dramatically decreased, and the state of the remaining is sometimes deplorable. There is information that by the beginning of the civil war, only 20-25% of combat vehicles were combat-ready in the Air Force. For example, in the 299th separate brigade of tactical aviation by the beginning of the war, out of 36 Su-25 attack aircraft in combat readiness there were from 8 to 14 aircraft!
The unsatisfactory training of personnel also negatively affected the performance of combat missions - only 10% of the pilots had the necessary qualifications. Even the command staff does not fly well - for example, on March 21, 2014, the squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kochan, crashed the Su-24M while landing at his airfield.
Interestingly, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, 37 MiG-29 and MiG-29UB, as well as 1 training L-39, were returned to Ukraine.
The level of disdain for its own air force in Ukraine is well illustrated by the situation with the modernization of equipment. During the entire period of "independence", work was carried out to improve the combat properties of the Su-25 to the Su-25M1 and Su-25UBM1, which became the only ones in the history of this type of troops. The on-board computer was replaced with a digital one, and the communication and satellite navigation system was brought up to date. A number of improvements were aimed at all-weather attack aircraft - they were able to work on targets from a height of 5000 meters.
Mi-24P shot down near Karpovka.
When the country needed to create an air strike group to suppress the militias and civilians in the South-East, it turned out that the group did not have enough spare parts, fuel and ammunition. The missing pieces were collected very simply: they were removed from the units that were not involved in combat operations. There were even worse incidents: the notorious Igor Kolomoisky, at the expense of his own airline "Dnepr-Avia", refueled all the helicopters of the Southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Air Force. At the very beginning of the air operation, flights were associated with intimidation, when two Su-27s flew around Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov at low altitudes, demonstrating weapons on external suspensions. The first strikes were struck by army aviation in early May 2014 in the person of the Mi-24 during the capture of Slavyansk, and a little later, attack aircraft were connected to work at the terminal of the Donetsk airport. Further more. The raids became a routine work of the Ukrainian Air Force, and quite often the targets were completely peaceful citizens. A glaring case was the attack on June 2 by a Su-25 attack aircraft on the building of the former administration of Luhansk, during which eight people, including five women, were killed. Perhaps it was the barbaric air raids, coupled with the indiscriminate shelling of the LPNR cities, that became the main reason for the hatred of the inhabitants of these regions towards the authorities in Kiev.
An-30B. The place of the fall is Prishib.
Over time, the militia entered into battle numerous MANPADS of the Strela and Igla types, which forced the aviation to move to a completely different echelon of attacks. Now the flight heights were about 5,000 meters, which did not contribute to the accuracy and selectivity of strikes - the Ukrainians did not have high-precision weapons, or they were in a deplorable state. The first victim was the Su-24M front-line bomber, one appearance of which speaks of the power of the air strikes that the army planned to unleash in the southeast of the country. The car fell on March 21 near Starokonstantinovka. The first downed helicopter was the Mi-8MT, destroyed by an ATGM on the ground on April 25 near Kramatorsk. The car was supposed to deliver ammunition, therefore, due to detonation, it burned out completely. Further more. During May, at least four rotorcraft were shot down from MANPADS and large-caliber machine guns, including the famous Mi-8MT with General of the National Guard Sergei Kulchitsky on board. There were also large losses - the Il-76MD in June over the Lugansk airport fell and burned with 49 paratroopers and 1 BMD after being hit by a MANPADS missile.
Transport Il-76MD shot down at the Luhansk airport.
Mi-8MT in which, among others, General Kulchitsky died.
Many aircraft were destroyed after a salvo launch of MANPADS missiles from different points on the ground. From the memoirs of the commander of the Su-24MR crew, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Bulatsik:
“The navigator shouted that he saw two missiles coming into the tail. Later it turned out that there were four of them. Began shooting traps, maneuvering. I saw how one rocket goes to the trap. It all ended with the fact that three missiles went to false thermal targets, but one turned out to be smart and hit the plane from the rear on the left (later it was determined from the fragments that it was an Arrow). The feeling was that the plane was hit with a sledgehammer, and then the buildup began. Several compartments caught fire, we realized that the controls were damaged, but the engines worked smoothly and, therefore, the flight should continue. Thanks to the terrain, we shifted the car to a descent in order to hide from subsequent launches, since maneuvering would no longer help us. We descended about 20 meters, thereby accelerating the plane, and left at such an altitude from the launch zone. When we approached our own people, it turned out that not only the control was disturbed, but the fuel was at its limit. The navigator figured out: it is possible to reach the airfield. This 30 minute flight was very long. When we arrived at the airfield and there was only fuel left for landing, we realized that there would be no second attempt to land the plane. The flight directors saw that the tail of the car was on fire and gave the command to leave the emergency car. There were 5 km to the strip, we took it higher, the traction reserve of one engine allowed, and sat down. During the run, they turned off the engines and started the fire extinguishing system, which brought down the fire. The car was rescued, there was no work for the fire department. Our opinion: we were expected, but nothing can be proved now."
MiG-29 shot down over Rozovka.
Su-24M, killed at Grigorovka.
The summer of 2014 turned out to be bloody for the Ukrainian Air Force: from July 2 to August 30, at least 19 combat vehicles were lost. Militiamen from MANPADS, OSA-AKM air defense systems, heavy machine guns, ZU-23-2 and Buk air defense systems worked on them. The most mysterious was the incident with the Su-25M1 near Gorlovka, when the surviving pilot assured everyone that he had been knocked down by an air-to-air missile. Such losses forced the leadership of Ukraine to be extremely careful to bring aviation into battle even in the most difficult periods of hostilities.
In fact, the Air Force faced the threat of the complete destruction of combat vehicles. According to rough estimates, in 2014, the irrecoverable losses of aviation in the Donbas amounted to 15 aircraft, 15 helicopters and 1 UAV Tu-143. In 2015, there were only 2 helicopters and 1 UAV. An alternative version sounds like this: 5 Mi-24, 9 Mi-8, 15 Su-24, 1 Su-24, 1 An-30B, 1 An-26 and 2 Il-76MD. From September 2014 to August 2017, for technical reasons, they permanently lost 2 Su-25M1 aircraft and 2 Mi-24 and Mi-24VP helicopters.
At present, only a desperate situation can make the Ukrainians use combat aircraft. For example, the threat of the storming of Kiev. Now the Kiev authorities see a way out in attracting modern Western technology capable of resisting the air defense of the militia.
