leaves several questions open - among them, what was such an aircraft, designed for launching very long range standoff weapons, doing so close to Ukraine?
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I thought the cruise missile launch areas for these bombers where the Caspian Sea area
Exactly so. The Caspian is out of range of anyones SAM systems. But this one went down near Stavropol, which is far from the Caspian sea.
If Putin still had a Black Sea Fleet, he wouldn’t have to send his strategic bombers to Crimea launch lines.