The Great Russian Jet Evacuation has Begun

The United States shipped at least a hundred long-range Army Tactical Missile System rockets to Ukraine starting in mid-March, right before Russia-friendly Republicans in the U.S. Congress finally ended their six-month blockade of $61 billion in fresh aid to Ukraine.

The Pentagon paid for the March shipment with $300 million in savings from a previously-approved U.S. contract for weapons for Ukraine; it paid for a possible second shipment of ATACMs, last week, with some of the recently-approved funds.

The Ukrainians wasted no time lobbing the rockets—which range as far as 190 miles and dispense hundreds or even a thousand submunitions, depending on the model—at Russian air bases across occupied Ukraine and in southern and western Russia.

An April 16 ATACMS raid on Dzhankoy air base, 100 miles from the front line in occupied Crimea, destroyed four launchers from an S-400 air-defense battery.

The Russians are spooked.

We know this because, on and just before Wednesday, the Russian air force—and possible the navy—began redeploying warplanes away from Ukrainian territory, clearly aiming to mitigate the risk from ATACMS and other Ukrainian deep-strike weapons, including long-range drones.

“The adversary's command has initiated the repositioning of operational-tactical and army aviation assets from forward air bases, including those situated deep within the operational theater, to the interior of Russian territory following the delivery of long-range strike capabilities such as ATACMS missiles to the Ukrainian defense forces,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies reported.

“The overall strength of enemy aviation units deployed directly at forward air bases has decreased from 303 to 305 units of combat and special aviation to 280 to 283 units,” CDS added.

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