According to Russian media on April 19, a Tu-22M3 bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed in Stavropol Krai due to an "engine fire" on the way back from a combat mission, and one of the four members of the plane was killed and one was missing. In this regard, Ukraine directly "demolished", saying that the bomber was destroyed by the Ukrainian army in cooperation with the Ukrainian air defense forces and intelligence services, in retaliation for the missile and drone attacks launched by Russia on Ukrainian cities on the 19th. Although Russia and Ukraine have their own opinions on the incident, there are two facts that cannot be denied: First, in the two years that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has continued, Russia has lost a "trump card fighter" for the first time, which has dealt a certain blow to its military spirit and will to fight. Second, regardless of the reason for the crash of the fighter, it shows that Russia's asymmetric combat advantage over Ukraine is being affected due to economic and logistical problems.
The Tu-22M3 bomber is a supersonic long-range strategic bomber, which has many functions such as strategic nuclear bombing, tactical bombing, anti-ship strike, long-distance rapid attack, etc., and can even pose a certain threat to the aircraft carrier formation. Due to the complexity of its maintenance and the economic difficulties of Russia, the model was discontinued in 1993, and there are only about 114 aircraft left in Russia at present, so to speak, one less than one. Russia is very painful about this crash and has had a certain impact on the situation between Russia and Ukraine. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the media that Russia has no intention of attacking European countries, saying that Russia is ready for peace talks, but in order to protect Russian territory from attack, the Russian army will not stop fighting during the negotiations.
It is not difficult to see that Russia is having a very hard time, under the West's nearly 20,000 comprehensive sanctions, Russia's energy, economic and trade and geopolitical security have been unprecedentedly challenged, not long ago Russian President Putin frankly said that Russia is in the "most difficult stage" in history, especially after the energy export to Europe was cut off, Russia has lost its main economic source, which has directly affected the equipment maintenance and logistics support of the Russian army, and has a direct impact on the war situation. In contrast, since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 54 countries have provided various types of assistance to Ukraine, crowdfunding weapons to fight Russia, and the amount of aid has reached 203 billion US dollars. The United States and other NATO countries have opened more than 500 spacecraft to provide intelligence support to the Ukrainian army, including more than 70 military reconnaissance satellites. In comparison, it is not surprising that the Russian army will have difficulty advancing on the battlefield.
At present, there are two public opinion calibers in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, one is that the Ukrainian side publicizes the unfavorable situation on the battlefield and forces the West to increase military aid, and on the other hand, Russia "reports good news but not bad news" and fights a protracted war. Just like the story of "ponies crossing the river", the situation may not be as bad as Ukraine says, nor as optimistic as Russian propaganda, and both sides have their own "little calculations" to fight. Through the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the military myths of the United States and Russia have been broken, the US military is not a "heavenly soldier", helpless against the Houthis and Iranian drones, and the Russian army is no longer as brave as it used to be, and has fought a stalemate with the Ukrainian army for more than two years but has few results. These two modern wars have brought us two major revelations, one is that the strategic function of drones should not be underestimated, and the other is that the more missiles should be stored, the better.
Whether Russia and Ukraine can negotiate peace does not depend on both sides, but depends on the attitude of the United States. At present, in the mutual attacks between Iran and Israel, the risk of spillover from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is high and low, if Iran does not end, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will be a "storm in a teapot", the United States still has the spare power to control the situation in the regional armed forces in the Middle East, and will not let go of the opportunity to give Russia "bloodletting", if the situation in the Middle East gets out of control, the United States is forced to fall into the Middle East quagmire, Ukraine may become an "outcast", and Russia still needs peace talks?