Russia has reportedly lost around 13 military aircraft in just five weeks, including Su-34 fighter-bombers, Su-30SM fighters, a Tu-95MS strategic bomber and a Su-57 stealth fighter, following Ukrainian strikes on Russian air bases and a series of air accidents.
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According to Defense Blog On October 31, the Ukrainian open source monitoring project Oko Gora recorded 11 Russian fighter jets and one helicopter lost in October, and two additional Su-34 bombers damaged. Including a Tu-95MS that crashed on September 29, reported losses have reached approximately 13 aircraft since the end of September.
The Su-34 fighter-bomber accounts for the largest share of reported losses. Russian forces regularly use these aircraft to launch guided glide bombs against Ukrainian military positions and cities.
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October 4, 2026 5:55 p.m.
On October 4, Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) drones reportedly struck an Su-34 and a Su-35 fighter at the Khanskaya air base in the Russian Republic of Adygea, approximately 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Another attack followed on October 14 and 15, when Ukrainian Neptune cruise missiles targeted the Borisoglebsk air base in Russia’s Voronezh region. Satellite images reportedly confirmed the destruction of four Su-34 bombers and two others seriously damaged.
On October 29, Ukrainian forces reportedly struck the Marinovka airbase in the Volgograd region with Neptune missiles, destroying two more Su-34 aircraft. A total of seven Su-34 bombers were reported destroyed in October, while two others were damaged.
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October 15, 2026 1:50 p.m.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russia had approximately 140 Su-34 aircraft in service as of October 22. Russian manufacturers delivered 22 new aircraft of the type between October 2025 and October 2026, meaning the seven losses reported in October alone represented almost a third of the previous year’s deliveries.
However, Ukrainian strikes are not the only cause of Russian air losses. As Defense Blog According to reports, a Tu-95MS strategic bomber crashed during takeoff near the Ukrainka air base in Russia’s Amur region on September 29, killing six of its seven crew members. The plane, which Russia uses to launch Kh-101 cruise missiles against Ukraine, is no longer in production.
On October 21, a Su-30SM fighter crashed during a training flight in Russia’s Kaliningrad region. Russian authorities said both crew members ejected. A second Su-30SM was reportedly lost the same day, although Moscow has not officially confirmed this incident.
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September 29, 2026 4:09 p.m.
One of the largest reported losses was of the Russian fifth-generation Su-57 stealth fighter. On October 29, a Su-57 reportedly caught fire while starting its engine at the Akhtubinsk airbase in the Astrakhan region, one of Russia’s main military aviation testing facilities.
Satellite images released by open source Ukrainian researchers showed a scorch mark on the airfield, although Russian authorities have not confirmed the plane’s destruction.
The reported losses occurred across a wide geographic area, from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea to regions in the Far East.
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October 30, 2026 1:03 p.m.
For context, the open source intelligence project Oryx has visually documented 205 Russian military aircraft destroyed or damaged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, according to figures cited by Defense Blog. The Su-34 accounted for 48 of these documented cases.
Losses also extended to Russian helicopters. On October 30, Ukraine’s Third Assault Brigade announced that it had destroyed a Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter in the Luhansk region using two Hornet attack drones after the plane landed.
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