At the beginning of the month, an attack on another Crimean airfield — at Saky — led analyst David Axe to comment that “Ukrainian missiles and drones are driving the Russian navy’s Black Sea fighter and bomber regiment into extinction.”

“The steady attrition of Crimea-based Russian warplanes underscores the prowess of Ukraine’s deep-strike drone units,” noted Axe in his Trench Art blog.

This is a major strategic issue for Russia given Russia is heavily relying on glide bombs for artillery pressure on the front because it cannot protect its other forms of artillery sufficiently to deploy it in forward firing positions.

There is also no better example of why attack helicopters are critical than this, they can provide some of the launch capability, radar and sensing that fighter-bombers can do without needing permanent, static, vulnerable infrastructure.