Ukraine: nuclear Tu-95 bombers illegally sold...

[Stratofreighter]

Possibly....

Translation of
http://podrobnosti.ua/2053036-komanda-j ... chika.html

Yanukovych's team has sold "left" two nuclear bomber

August 18, 2015 6:45

Two strategic bombers disappeared

General Prosecutor's Office finds out who the team of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych has sold the two strategic bombers Tu-95 MS, capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

It became known from the determination of Pechersk district court in Kiev, placed in the Unified Register of judgments.

Law Enforcement Agency has already received court permission to search all the rooms and areas of concern "Ukroboronprom" state enterprise "Mykolaiv aircraft repair plant" NARP ", as well as access to the documents at the center account surplus military property of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The sanction provided in the framework of investigation of the criminal offense of unlawful disposal of property Defense Ministry - Tu-95MS 1987 release.

The prosecutor's office together with the aircraft looking for their parts, technical documentation and other documents related to the implementation, inspection, evaluation, repair, dismantling, storage, payment for services and transportation of these aircraft.

According to preliminary information, the aircraft could be implemented in the second half of 2013 - January 2014. This is indicated by the dating of the documents that are interested in the prosecutor's office.

It is worth noting that since 2007, the Russian Federation, after a long hiatus resumed air patrols range aircraft.

Long-range strategic nuclear bombers Tu-95MS ("Bears", according to NATO classification) remains one of the main components of the nuclear triad of air Russia.

[FredL]

Yes...
As far as I know and remember from my visits, regarding Ukraine, at least two Tu-95s are/were at museums :
One of those was lying in open-air for years at the Strategic aviation musuem of Poltova.
The second one was, also in open-air, at the aviation museum of Lugansk (regarding what is left today of this airport, I am afraid this aircraft should be totally destroyed by now).

And until 2 years ago, 3 Tu-95s were on a parking at Mykolaev air base, at lesat one of them partially scrapped. Not really AMARC preservation conditions.
As far as I know, the other Tu-95s have been either sold back to Russia or scrapped (under a US financially backed plan and in compliance with the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) in the 1990s.
In a report, I see that two of them would have been converted for environmental reconnaissance missions in 2001 (http://www.nti.org/media/pdfs/ukraine_b ... 1317244859). As far as I know, they didn't fly anymore the last years.

I don't know which ones among them would have been sold, but after about 15 years (or more for some of them) on the ground, left on parkings in the open air, I whish "good luck" to anyone who would try to make them airworthy again.
I suppose the only ones which still may be interesting are the two so-called converted ones.

At the end, this politically oriented investgation makes me smile a bit : nobody was complaining in Ukraine, when the country exported on black market lots of helicopters, tanks, fighter jets (and sometimes their crew) to fight in Africa. Yanukovych is for sure not someone I'd which to have diner with... But current Kiev's politicians and prosecutors seem to be half-blinded or to have a kind of "short term memory" of what took place and what should be allowed or not regarding weapons sales ; they'd better question previous leaders like Timoshenko or Lazarenko about that and the destination of the money coming from those sales of military hardwares.

Strategic bombers sales may of course sound much more frightening then Su-27 or Mig-29s, but even if the information is true, knowing how those bombers currently really looked like, it seems to me that conventional weapons sales are actually as lethal. And who would have the technical infrastructure and human knowledge to use planes such Tu-95s ? Russia...? which was allowed to buy more then 10 Tu-160, and some other Tu-95 MS from Ukraine 15 yaers ago ?

One last question : if the deal was such a danger, how did at least 2 such airplanes (visible on any google earth pictures of Ukraine) and their disappearance at least 2 years ago escape attention from NATO or the authority in charge of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe ?

[cis]

As far as I know there were two Tu-95 and one Tu-142 at Mikolaev.

The two Tu-95MS were eliminated (read modified/disabled) for their nuclear capacity, so no need to monitor these under START. Conventional arms treaty probably saw two Tu-95 during onsite inspections which were also reported in the CFE documents, so no problem...

[FredL]

I agree with you.

But then, why does the Ukrainian prosecutor's release talk about the sale of "two strategic bombers Tu-95 MS, capable of carrying nuclear weapons" ?
Either to make previous rulers look even worse then they already do by exagerating the situation while those planes didn't fullfill such conditions - and this would be pure propaganda - or to underline the fact that those aircraft may be converted again into strategic bombers, which would once again lead to the question "how is it possible to have them disappearing without anybody being concerned before ?". In my opinion, it is difficult to believe that such aircraft, with such a potential, in airworthy or close to airworthy condition were still present in a country like Ukraine in 2013-2014.

Here would be a part of the explanation in this press relaese during the springs of 2014 (One more Tu-95 would be in a museum in Kiev. I never saw it there. And one more at Uzin AFB ; but it doesn't appear on google earth) :

http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/ne ... eBay-4561/
and here :
http://www.ruaviation.com/news/2014/3/11/2217/


See also here :

http://defence-blog.com/?p=7444

[FredL]

Looks like the one at Kiev is a Tu-142 :

http://aviamuseum.com.ua/en/exposition

By the way, this museum looks pretty nice.
Has anybody been there ?

[Stratofreighter]

Looks like the one at Kiev is a Tu-142 :

http://aviamuseum.com.ua/en/exposition

By the way, this museum looks pretty nice.
Has anybody been there ?

The museum at Kiev-Zhulyany is very much worth a visit if you happen to be in the neighbourhood!

[FredL]

Thanks a lot.
My job sometimes brings me to Ukraine. I saw a few museums and exhibitions there, but never this one.