Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

Those 40 Bombers would amount to abut 30% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet, although it seems "only" 7 are visually confirmed to be totally written off. Still, its a huge blow to russias military, its reputation, and probably morale. It shows that Ukraine is still well capable of defending itself, particularly by making use of asymptotic warfare. It also shows how incredibly efficient and effective (cost/effect) new tools like drones can be. A strategic bomber is not exactly cheap to produce.

To your point:

Initially, Ukrainian authorities claimed to have hit 41 aircraft, in total, including Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bombers, as well as A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control aircraft. However, these were clearly not all destroyed or even damaged.

Subsequently, Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that “at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed.”

Among those aircraft, the new video confirms that several of the Tu-95MS bombers were already loaded with Kh-101 conventionally armed cruise missiles, ready for launch against Ukraine, as seen in the image below. This fact underlines how big a threat these aircraft are to Ukraine and reinforces the fact that they are legitimate targets.

https://www.twz.com/air/firm-evidence-of...ne-strikes

We may see that count rise further, but you are correct, 41 destroyed is overclaiming. I do still think that damage not readily apparent to BDA methods or satellite imagery may see more write-offs, but that can't be a large number.

I think it's also significant that at least some of those bombers were uploaded for a mission scheduled later that evening. It implies a possible breach of Russian opsec that, if true, is going to generate yet another follow-on effect: the purging of officers and personnel in the loop on that mission.