Ukraine just bombed Russian bombers deep inside Russia again

So here's why this one matters.

This is the second time in two weeks Ukraine has used a Neptune missile to blow up Russian bombers sitting on the ground, far from the front line.

Two weeks ago, on 15 October, a Neptune hit an airfield at Borisoglebsk. Four Su-34s destroyed. Two more damaged.

Now it's Marinovka. Same missile. Same playbook.

And the Su-34 matters. It's the jet Russia uses to drop glide bombs on Ukrainian cities and front-line towns. Every one destroyed on the ground is one less doing that.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, says Russia has now lost 43 Su-34s destroyed and seven damaged since the invasion began in February 2022. Russia had around 140 of them left as of 22 October.

Here's the number that actually hurts. HUR says Russia can only build 14 to 18 new Su-34s a year. So the jets it's lost work out to roughly two and a half to three years of production. Gone.

And replacing them isn't simple. It takes specialised industrial cooperation and serious money, HUR says. Russia is still trying to grow the fleet, not just patch it.

The missile behind all this is the Neptune. Ukraine built it. A ground-launched version sank the Moskva, Russia's Black Sea flagship, back in 2022. Ukraine has since built a longer-range version that can hit targets 1,000 kilometres away. Marinovka shows it can reach deep into Russia.

The Ukrainian Navy says quote "continues to strike enemy military targets".

That's Ukraine saying this isn't a one-off. It's a pattern.

What we don't know yet: how badly the airfield itself is damaged, whether Russia moves its remaining jets somewhere safer, and how it replaces what it just lost.

Russia hasn't answered any of it.