Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Russian Air Force was officially established on the 12th of August 1912, as part of the Imperial Russian Air Service. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, it was reorganised as the Red Air Fleet in 1918, which evolved into the Soviet Air Forces. The modern Russian Air Force was reconstituted on the 7th of May 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
On the 1st of August 2015, the Russian Air Force merged with the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces and the Air Defense Troops to form the Russian Aerospace Forces. Lieutenant General Andrey Yudin became the first Commander of the VVS within the new joint structure.
The Russian Air Force struggled significantly. By the 1st of April 2022, it had failed to achieve air supremacy despite deploying around 300 combat aircraft. In the first six months of the campaign, less than 40% of 2,154 missiles fired hit their targets. Fewer than 3,000 of over 20,000 sorties entered Ukrainian airspace, attributed partly to fear of Ukrainian air defense systems.
The UMPK (unified gliding and correction module) is a bomb kit that converts Soviet-era unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions. First deployed in early 2023, it is used with FAB-250, FAB-500, and FAB-1500 bombs fitted to Su-34 bombers. The kits allow aircraft to release weapons from beyond the range of Ukrainian air defense systems. Ukrainian General Ivan Havryliuk reported that Russia dropped over 3,500 of these bombs on Ukrainian positions in the first part of 2024.
On the 1st of June 2025, Ukraine's Security Service struck at least two Russian airfields - Olenya in the Arctic and Belaya in Siberia - destroying rows of strategic bombers. Ukrainian sources claimed over 40 aircraft were destroyed, including Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers. The Financial Times reported the losses amounted to around 20% of Russia's operational long-range aviation fleet.
During the 1990s, Russian pilots achieved approximately 10% of the flight hours logged by United States Air Force pilots. By 2007, a report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies found that tactical aviation pilots were flying only 20-25 hours per year. This had improved significantly by 2012, when pilots in the Western Military District averaged 125 hours annually.