The head of Ukraine's SBU sec urity service, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, said on Monday that Kyiv hit 41 aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bom bers Russia has used extensively to fire long-range missiles at Ukraine.

Russian pro-military bloggers called it “our Pearl Harbor” — though this was no unprovoked attack. For these are — or were — the same bombers which carry the airborne proponent of Russia’s strategic nuclear threat,