Vladimir Putin‘s air force has dropped a staggering 19 tonnes of Russian made bombs inside their own country.
While other branches of Putin’s army have suffered debilitating losses of manpower and equipment, the air force has remained relatively unscathed during the 26 months of fighting.
Western military experts estimate that Russia has lost only 10 percent of its air force fleet, since the outbreak of hostilities.
Quite often Russian bombers can launch their missiles and bombs from distance, staying out of reach of Ukrainian air defence systems.
Among its arsenal of weapons, Putin’s air force boasts the FAB-500 – a weapon that has caused havoc on Ukrainian frontline positions.
The lethal weapon is a 500 kilogram general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead.
It is designed to destroy military-industrial facilities, railway junctions, lightly armoured and vulnerable equipment, manpower, as well as military field installations.
Yet Putin’s pilots have been found wanting when it comes to targeting, according to a new report by the Russian media site Astra.
New analysis shows that at least 38 FAB-500s have been dropped inside Russia as well as Kremlin-controlled parts of Ukraine over the last three months.
In the most recent incident, three bombs were dropped in the Belgorod region on Wednesday – one of which fell close to a water park. No casualties were reported.
May has seen numerous other occasions when Russian planes bombed their own territory with the deadly weapons.
On May 4 a FAB-500 fell on the city of Belgorod injuring at least seven civilians, as well as causing damage to 31 apartments.
Five more FAB-500s were also dropped on the border region with Ukraine on May 10 and May 11.
Another devastating weapon in the possession of Putin’s air force is the so-called KAB glide bomb.
The KAB has become the weapon of choice for Russian pilots since the middle of last year.
The bomb ranges 25 miles on pop-out wings, which allows Russian jets to stay out of the range of Ukrainian air defences.
The Russian air force is firing as many as 3,000 KABs every month, which cause utter devastation on impact.
Egor Sugar, a soldier with the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade wrote on X: “All buildings and structures simply turn into a pit after the arrival of just one KAB.”