In the span of.
Three alarming days.
This summer.
‘Orcs’ rockets badly bled.
The battered ‘elves’ air force.
—destroying at least three.
Precious fighter jets.
In brazen deep strikes.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
On or just before Friday.
An ‘orcs’ surveillance drone.
Winged unimpeded over.
Aviatorskoe-Dnipro air base.
Near the city of Dnipro.
50 miles from.
The front line.
In eastern Ukraine.
Dnipro was the target.
Of a recent strike.
By ‘orcs’ experimental.
Oreshnik ballistic missile.
The drone zeroed in.
On a shelter apparently.
Housing an ‘elves’ air force.
Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter.
Minutes later.
An Iskander ballistic missile.
Streaked down.
—and exploded directly.
—and exploded directly.
Over the shelter.
Likely destroying.
The MiG.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
On 1 July.
An ‘orcs’ drone spotted.
Six ‘elves’ air force.
Sukhoi Su-27 fighters.
Parked in the open.
In broad daylight.
At Mirgorod air base.
In northern Ukraine.
100 miles from.
The border with ‘Mordor’.
An Iskander destroyed.
Two of the supersonic fighters.
The next day.
Something similar happened.
An ‘orcs’ drone flew circles.
Over the ‘elves’ air base.
In Poltava.
Just east of Mirgorod.
And also 100 miles.
From the border.
After hours of surveillance.
An Iskander exploded.
—damaging if.
Not destroying.
—damaging if.
Not destroying.
An ‘elves’ army Mil.
Mi-24 gunship helicopter.
On 3 July.
The ‘orcs’ targeted.
Dolgintsevo air base.
Near Kryvyi Rih.
Just 45 miles.
From the front line.
In southern Ukraine.
A drone scanned.
The base and.
As many as three.
As many as three.
Iskanders rained down.
The drone’s video feed.
Seemed to confirm.
The destruction of.
Two airframes:
One, a non-flying decoy.
Sukhoi Su-25 attack jet;
The other.
An operational MiG-29.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
We can assume.
The Su-25 was decoy.
Because it matched.
The profile.
Of another decoy Su-25.
That the ‘orcs’ struck.
At Dolgintsevo.
Back in November 2023.
During an earlier round of.
Strikes on ‘elves’ air bases.
That destroyed two MiG-29s.
And an operational Su-25.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
Since the fall.
Of 2023.
‘Orcs’ raids on ‘elves’ airfields.
Have knocked out.
At least two Su-27s.
Four MiG-29s.
An Su-25 and.
Potentially the Mi-24.
It’s a startling rate.
Of loss for a military.
That might have fewer than.
100 operational warplanes.
And just 50.
Or so gunships.
The Iskander attacks.
Are only possible.
Because of what.
One analyst described as.
‘Orcs’ “continuous and.
Dense surveillance” of Ukraine.
Which provides.
The targeting coordinates.
For the missiles.
Despite acquiring hundreds.
Of air-defense systems.
From its allies.
Ukraine still can’t.
Fully defend its airspace.
—at least not thoroughly.
Enough to prevent.
Missile raids on air bases.
And the warplanes they host.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
That’s bad news for.
The ‘elves’ air force.
As it struggles to source planes for.
Its war-weary fighter brigades.
Realistically, there are.
No more easy sources.
For spare MiG-29s.
And Su-25s:
Ukraine’s closest allies.
Have already donated.
All of the ex-Soviet jets.
They can spare.
No allied countries.
Possess Su-27s.
The only fresh MiGs.
And Sukhois will.
The only fresh MiGs.
And Sukhois will.
Have to come from.
Ukraine itself.
—from the vast stocks.
Of old airframes left behind.
By the departing Soviet.
Air force in 1991.
How many of those.
Airframes are recoverable.
After potentially decades.
In storage is.
An open question.
And an urgent one.
An open question.
And an urgent one.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
Ukraine is slowly.
Taking delivery of.
As many as 85.
Ex-European Lockheed Martin.
F-16s.
As well as around.
A dozen ex-French.
Dassault Mirage 2000s.
These nearly 100.
Donated fighters will.
Eventually comprise the core.
Of a rebuilt ‘elves’ air force.
But it could take.
A year or longer.
For all the planes.
To arrive.
Months later.
It happened again.
Months later.
It happened again.
The raid was ominously.
Reminiscent of.
The attacks.
This summer.
And unless Ukraine.
Can significantly improve.
Its air defenses.
The newly arrived jets will be.
Just as vulnerable as.
The MiGs and Sukhois.
That keep getting.
Blown up by ‘orcs’ missiles.
*Because I read “A Russian Drone Flew Unimpeded Over A Ukrainian Air Base, Leisurely Selecting A MiG-29 For A Ballistic Missile To Destroy” by David Axe on 24 Nov 2024 on the Forbes, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022 on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem, including a report of Jack Watling.
Please read the original story on the Forbes:
A Russian Drone Flew Over A Ukrainian Air Base, Picking Targets
