In the context of nuclear disarmament and in order to pay for Russian gas consumed in the 1990s, the Russian Federation received from Ukraine a squadron of Tu-95 ("Bear") bombers and about 400 X-55 missiles, which were used by the aggressor state during a full-scale invasion to attack Ukrainian cities .

Military expert Oleg Zhdanov recalled this in his video blog.

According to him, about 15 military planes were flown to the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk, where they were based for a long time. 

"I did not follow what their future fate was.

I remember that one of them crashed due to a pilot error.

These were practically new planes, some of them, according to our pilots, had only 30 hours of flying time," the expert said.

At the same time, Zhdanov recalled, Ukraine transferred about 400 X-55 missiles to Russia. 

"This decision was made during Kravchuk's presidency, and was handed down during Kuchma's time.

Kravchuk agreed and conducted all the preparatory negotiations for the signing of the Budapest Memorandum on Ukraine's renunciation of nuclear weapons, which Kuchma had already handed over.

These were the main carriers of nuclear weapons — both missiles and airplanes," the expert explained.

Zhdanov also emphasized that these "gifts" to the Russians were not only a consequence of giving up nuclear weapons, but also had an economic basis - the debts for Russian gas were paid off with planes and missiles.

We will remind, according to intelligence, Russia is capable of a maximum of 2-3 powerful strikes with high-precision weapons. 

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