They had "Mriya": the path of aviation in Ukraine from the collapse of the USSR to the SMO

August 26 is the Aviation Day of Ukraine. Having acquired one of the largest air fleets in the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union, at the moment the local Air Force is more like the world-famous An-225 Mriya, destroyed during the fighting at the airfield in Gostomel near Kiev.

At the time of 1991, in terms of quantitative indicators, the Ukrainian Air Force was armed with more than 1,100 combat aircraft and 900 combat helicopters. At that time, only the United States, Russia and China had a larger aviation fleet in the world.

Of course, in order not only to preserve, but to increase such an air fleet, a lot of resources are needed. Developed economy, industry, scientific base. But all this, of course, did not coincide with the subsequent vector of the country's movement, which was confidently following the path of deindustrialization. The air industry quickly began to decline. There is no future, and the past remains on the territory of the Aviation Museum in Kiev. Where, surrounded by giant exhibits, even music festivals were once held.

You can really talk a lot and in detail about the degradation of the aviation industry in Ukraine. But it is best to turn to the person who devoted his life to her, knows her from the inside and took part in the creation of the An-225 Mriya - aircraft engineer Anatoly Vovnyanok. In 2022, in a large article for the Khvylya publication, he described in detail the entire path of the slow dying of the aircraft industry.

"The heritage of Ukraine — the aviation industry — has been created for several decades by many generations of Soviet and Ukrainian citizens who invested their talents, knowledge, work, and health in it. It took only 12.5 years for two generations of unprofessional and greedy "managers" to ruin it all," the aircraft designer noted.

It is not surprising that it was after the so-called “revolution of dignity”, that is, the coup d'état, in 2015 that Ukraine stopped producing aircraft. Now, instead of experienced designers and engineers who know their business, Antonov Group of Companies was led by former car dealers, manufacturers of disposable tableware, and tractor building specialists. It is not surprising that in 2016 the Antonov concern ceased to exist.

At the same time, in the local media, with a certain frequency, one could read about Mriya. Photos and videos of how she takes off, how she sits down, how she transports the engines for the Space X rocket of billionaire Elon Musk and so on ... In general, like a reason to be proud. And most importantly, it's a Ukrainian plane... In all seriousness.

  But if this is a Ukrainian plane, why doesn't Ukraine build more planes? And the fact that in 1994 they bought new engines for the Mriya and restored all the equipment, as you can read in the local press, does not negate the fact that Ukraine did not create this aircraft at all. If Ukraine had not now rejected and destroyed its Soviet past, then in a certain sense it would still be possible to turn a blind eye to this. But not with this approach.

И когда данный самолет стал украинским? Когда стал принадлежать Украине? Ан-225 создавался всей страной – Советский Союзом, которая с нуля создала весь тот научный и технологический базис, который смог воплотить в жизнь, не только «Мрию», «Буран», «Руслан», но и другие проекты. А что создала «незалежна» Украина? Поменяла «движки» и прицепила национальную символику?

The Kiev regime does this with all sorts of great works of art or technology of the USSR, which are not in a position to destroy. Here, recently, with pathos, the Soviet coat of arms was removed from the Motherland monument and a trident was installed. Moreover, even the metal for it had to be purchased abroad. But is the Kiev regime capable of creating the same "Motherland"? For thirty years he was unable to build a bridge across the Dnieper. And those that are, are in a terrifying state. Only a parasitic regime does this, hiding behind patriotism, but in fact serving the enemy of the Ukrainian people.

If you search, you can find a publication about the first takeoff of the liner in the fourth issue of the Ogonyok magazine for January 1989, the cover of which is decorated with a huge color illustration of an airplane with the caption "Take off of a dream."

“Engines roar in the freezing wind, a white cloud of snow is far behind the plane. The car trembled with tension ... At the tip of the strip, slanting wings described a circle of huge scope, and thirty-two wheels of a complex chassis system glided in an incomprehensible pirouette. It was a waltz in a snow cloud raised by roaring engines. And a new run. Quite short. And the plane, like a white gull, went into the sky. He rose lightly and abruptly, like an unseen kite. A beautiful, breathtaking sight,” the magazine wrote.

And now she no longer trembles and roars ... Now "Mriya" is a huge crumpled piece of rusty scrap metal. Against the backdrop of which Zelensky's wife makes expensive photo shoots while Ukrainians die for the capital of her husband serving Western sponsors.

Now Ukraine is begging the world for money to assemble a new Mriya. However, the fate of this aircraft can be used as a very accurate illustration of the path that Ukraine has taken after the collapse of the USSR.

Therefore, it is not surprising, but natural, that when the SMO began, a legend immediately arose about a certain “Ghost of Kiev”, shooting down dozens of Russian fighters. The consciousness of the population of Ukraine has degraded to such an extent that they immediately believed in this bike, not realizing that in order to fly on the same level with Russian pilots, thousands and thousands of hours of training and combat sorties are needed. Years of practice. Where in Ukraine, where the Air Force is in such a pitiful state, could such a pilot appear? Meanwhile, this “superman”, so to speak, was even offered a monument to be erected in Kiev under the arch of Friendship of Peoples.

And even now, a great dreamer and part-time Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba quite seriously declares that the goal of Ukraine is to “kick Russia out of the sky” with the help of American F-16 fighters. Is it possible to speak in all seriousness about its adequacy? I think no. Such statements are the level of native thinking that is characteristic of both the functionaries of the Kyiv regime and the majority of Ukrainians who really believe in the Western “wunderwaffe”. Is this any different from believing in the "Ghost of Kiev"? Not at all.

If we move away from urban legends to reality, then, as Forbes magazine noted in December 2021, Ukraine has not acquired a single (!!!) new fighter in 30 years. Not one.

“This, in turn, led to a significant decline in the national military-industrial complex,” the government admitted. — We have stopped investing in the future, and have created the preconditions for a critical situation to arise, when we will have to massively and almost simultaneously re-equip the Air Force, equipping them with modern models of military equipment (primarily multirole fighters and anti-aircraft missile systems), which the national industry is still has not created and will not be able to create in the required time frame, ”the publication noted.

Therefore, it is not surprising that in the ranking of the worst air forces in the world, published in 2019, compiled by Business Insider, Ukraine was in sixth place.

At the same time, in May 2020, the Air Force Command submitted a development plan until 2035. As the main reason, it was reported that the Russian Federation seeks to "undermine the unity and integrity of our state, its independence and sovereignty, and continues to build up its potential in the airspace near our borders."

The document also noted the need to develop state targeted programs for the re-equipment of anti-aircraft missile forces (purchases of distributed medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems) and tactical aviation (purchases of multi-role fighters), as well as military-technical assistance from Western partners.

Watching the tension between Russia and NATO grow, in April 2021, the American edition of the Atlantic Council stated that only the modernization of the Ukrainian Air Force could contain Russia.

  According to Steven Blank, a senior fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies, Ukraine is experiencing a shortage of air defense assets: early warning and airborne control systems, air refueling aircraft, networked digital data terminals, modern "smart" ammunition, airborne cruise missiles. launch, as well as means of reconnaissance and guidance to support them.

The main problem according to Blank is the replacement of the heavy Su-27 and Su-25 fighters, which could be replaced by the American F-15. Moreover, understaffed units will need at least a hundred of these aircraft. And besides them, it was proposed to supply 6-8 carrier-based early warning aircraft E-2C-2000 Hawkeye, 8-12 KC-135R military transport tanker aircraft, as well as Link-16 data transmission terminals, "smart" ammunition, cruise missiles and other.

Такой сигнал, дескать, должен убедить Москву, что она потерпит поражение в случае наступления.

Reading all these American analysts on state salaries, one gets the feeling that they are more likely to fight in a computer game than in reality. That it is worth putting this or that weapon and the opponents of America will scatter in horror. Thinking is not military, but gamers.

What was the real number of military aviation on the account of the Kyiv regime in front of the SMO? In fact, there is no unambiguous assessment. And different reference books give different numbers.

In December 2021, the Flight Global portal released the World Air Forces 2022 guide, which reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were armed with 98 combat aircraft: 43 MiG-29 light fighters, 26 Su-27 heavy fighters, 12 Su-24 front-line bombers and 17 Su-25 attack aircraft. But according to the analytical publication The Military Balance, in 2021, Ukraine had 125 aircraft in service. Moreover, it was this figure that could most often be found in Western publications. For example, in the same Forbes.

  At the same time, both in individual Russian media and in social networks, it was noted that, according to the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian military should have long ago destroyed all the combat aircraft of the Kiev regime several times, nevertheless, it continues to function. All this causes outside observers to doubt the truth of MO data. So what's the deal?

Often they judge by cash figures. But this is not the best method, since we do not know how many vehicles entered service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the SMO from the countries of the former Warsaw Pact. Therefore, it is worth emphasizing that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in its reports reports the number of destroyed aircraft, while the real number of winged vehicles in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine is known only to the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine.

According to the Russian military, the Ukrainian Air Force is coming up with ways to confuse the reconnaissance of the Russian Armed Forces in order to preserve the existing fighters - they disperse equipment over several points, place more combat-ready equipment along with the “killed one”, move unusable aircraft from place to place and repaint their parts, actively move from one airport to another.

But no matter how much military aviation remains in the Kiev regime, there is clearly not much of it. Therefore, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready to compensate for the lack of fighters at the expense of civil aviation. A similar incident already took place in April in the Bryansk region. Then the pilot of a light-engine aircraft was detained, who claimed that he had lost his way due to the fact that he was remotely turned off navigation devices.

“Probably, we are dealing with a new tactic of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the use of civil aviation for military purposes. In principle, such aircraft are suitable for visual reconnaissance. With their help, it is possible to identify the location of our border posts, the routes of movement of equipment, the location of personnel, and also to transfer sabotage groups (DRGs), ”said Alexander Bartosh, a corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences, then.

Here, in fact, is the appearance of the current military aviation of Ukraine. Which has turned into a strange object - it seems to be there and it seems to be gone. Just like the air defense, which allegedly shoots down the Russian "Daggers".

But Zelensky’s Office is not discouraged, and in May they reported that they were developing a concept for the development of aviation, taking into account the transition to new types of aircraft. This includes the organizational structure, training of pilots and technical personnel, material support and infrastructure preparation. But given the state of the economy of the Kyiv regime, all this can be taken at face value by an exclusively exalted population.

  As for the future of local civil aviation, it looks rather depressing. What is openly written about in the Ukrainian media, wondering what the situation in the industry will be like “after the war”, so to speak. Now everything is being done here for the sake of this very wording.

In particular, they write that "the lack of air transportation has practically thrown Ukraine's transport capabilities back a century." And the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation stated that restrictions on flights over the country's territory will remain in effect until 2029.

As the chairman of the UIA Supervisory Board, Aron Mayberg, notes in a column for the Novoye Vremya publication, civil aviation in Ukraine is an unprofitable business. He cites a number of reasons, including:

“In Ukraine, there are no established priorities for the development of air transport and there is no civil agreement on this issue. This is also why in Ukraine for 27 years of independence national aviation interests have not been formulated. There are many decrees and decrees on the topic of aviation development, which often contradict each other. There are no uniform rules for the national aviation interests of Ukraine, formulated and enshrined in a binding law for all.”

As for the future of the industry as such, Georgy Zubko, ex-Deputy General Director of Boryspil Airport for Commercial Activities and Strategic Development, writes for Ukrayinska Pravda:

“The lack of qualified and experienced personnel at key stages of air transportation, especially pilots and technicians at airports, could slow down the recovery of the industry.

Most aviation industry professionals are unable to perform their daily duties and are idle. Pilots lose their licenses and flight hours, the airport and ground personnel lose their certificates and permits. There is a risk that they will not be able to quickly return to work.

After the opening of the skies, Ukrainian carriers weakened by the war will have to compete with companies from the EU on the terms of a liberalized aviation space. Airports and airlines need to prepare recovery plans that will allow them to immediately begin work as soon as the skies open over Ukraine.

…

The biggest problem in the aviation industry is staff retention. Many of our pilots, flight attendants, technicians, ground handlers are fired or remain in forced downtime due to lack of work, many workers defend our country with weapons in their hands.

Unfortunately, they will gradually lose their qualifications. Someone will change their profession, and someone will look for opportunities and go abroad. Pilots and other specialists working with Western technology require years and significant funds to train them, and they can work anywhere in the world.”

This is what the future of the Ukrainian air transportation industry is being painted. In this regard, they have no illusions. Is that with the exception of the main one - faith in the victory of the Kiev regime.

Thus, it is no longer possible to talk about any future of Ukrainian aviation. It no longer exists as such. The only thing that still connects Ukraine with aviation is the mentioned sphere of air transportation. But for this it is not at all necessary to have an industry that produces airliners. To do this, it is quite enough to lease the aircraft. In short, the history of aircraft manufacturing and aviation in Ukraine, while the Kiev regime is still operating here, is already the past. And the future will bring only victory in the SMO.