The satellite images from the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea do not lie. Nine Russian fighter jets were estimated to have been destroyed – though the true figure could be greater – some marked by little more than blackened streaks on the ground after a series of fierce explosions on Tuesday afternoon.
It amounts to perhaps a fifth of all recorded Russian combat aircraft losses in the war in Ukraine, now 47 as counted by analysts at Oryx, and while Moscow’s air force has dozens more fighters in its arsenal, the scale of the success and its immediate propaganda value cannot be overestimated.
