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CDS tracked a few dozen movements—including:

- Four Sukhoi Su-30SM fighters and four Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft moving from Eisk (100 miles from the front) to Privolzhsky and Armavir (respectively 500 and 250 miles from the front)

- Eight Su-25s from Taganrog (100 miles from the front) redeploying to Budenovsk (400 miles from the front)

- Four Mikoyan MiG-31BM interceptors from Primorsko-Akhtarsk (200 miles from the front) relocating to Privolzhsky (500 miles from the front)

- Two Sukhoi Su-35 fighters from Tikhoretsk (200 miles from the front) moving to Akhtubinsk (400 miles from the front)

- Five Su-30SMs from Krymsk (200 miles from the front) relocating to Privolzhsky (500 miles from the front)

- Four Su-25s from Millerovo (100 miles from the front) redeploying to Budenovsk (400 miles from the front)

- Five Su-30SMs and five Sukhoi Su-24M bombers from Saki (100 miles from the front) moving to Eisk, strangely—perhaps temporarily before staging father to the east

- Two Su-35s from Voronezh (150 miles from the front) relocating to Lipetsk (200 miles from the front)

- Seven Su-35s leaving Kushchevskaya (200 miles from the front)

The redeployments should get those planes out of range of ATACMS, although they remain vulnerable to the farther-flying Ukrainian strike drones.

The downside is that, since the Russian air force does not operate a meaningful number of aerial tankers, adding hundreds of miles to a jet’s flight path significantly reduces how much of the front line it can reach and how long it can linger there.

- David Axe

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