In its daily update, the British Ministry of Defence has indicated that Russia no longer utilizes its fleet of heavy long-range bombers.
Via X, formerly Twitter, the British Ministry of Defence writes: “The fleet of heavy long-range bombers of the Russian Air Force has not flown any cruise missile air strikes on Ukraine for over a month – one of the longest gaps since the start of the conflict. While Russia is still capable of utilizing other strike capabilities, the LRA was the key weapon that Russia will likely use for attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the winter when the new LRA ammunition stocks are produced.”
Furthermore, from London it is stated: “Russia will most likely continue to complement any such campaign with Iranian one-off strikes using unmanned aerial vehicles. It is almost certain that it had to reduce the frequency of its attacks to replenish its dwindling stock of AS-23a KODIAK cruise missiles, the primary method for carrying out precision strikes from a distance.”
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (2022-10-28), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)