Russian aircraft losses skyrocket as crashes expose the collapse of the air fleet

Russia’s war effort is increasingly constrained not only by losses at the front, but by a deepening crisis within its own military infrastructure far from Ukraine. Years of sanctions, accelerated wartime usage, and deferred modernization have placed extraordinary strain on systems that were never designed to sustain prolonged high-intensity operations. Nowhere is this more visible than in aviation, where aging platforms, shrinking technical expertise, and supply bottlenecks intersect in dangerous ways. What was once managed through routine maintenance and redundancy is becoming a matter of improvisation and risk acceptance. As Russia prioritizes short-term battlefield needs over long-term force preservation, structural weaknesses that were previously hidden are beginning to surface with increasing frequency. The result is a growing vulnerability that erodes Russia’s military capacity not through enemy action, but through internal exhaustion and systemic decay.

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