Ukraine is widely estimated to have only around 20 Su‑27 fighter jets left in service, with most recent open‑source assessments clustering in the 18–26 range rather than giving a single precise figure.
What the numbers actually say
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine inherited one of the largest Su‑27 fleets in the world: roughly 70–74 airframes, depending on the source. Through the 1990s and 2000s that number fell because of accidents, attrition, budget cuts and sales abroad, leaving only a few dozen truly airworthy jets by the mid‑2010s. One detailed pre‑war analysis counted about 55 surviving Su‑27s of all variants, but not all of those were flyable at any given moment.
The full‑scale Russian invasion in 2022 accelerated that decline. Public loss tallies and investigative pieces suggest that Ukraine has lost at least 19 Su‑27s since February 2022 alone, through combat shoot‑downs and other wartime causes. A December 2025 social‑media report from a defense‑focused outlet noted another Su‑27 loss and echoed contemporary estimates that only about 18–22 remained in the fleet by early 2025. A separate military inventory site, using slightly different methodology, lists 26 Su‑27s as part of Ukraine’s active combat aircraft inventory for the 2024–2026 period, again implying a small, heavily attrited fleet rather than large undisclosed reserves.
Why there’s no exact public figure
Ukraine doesn’t publish detailed, up‑to‑date numbers for each aircraft type during wartime, and for understandable reasons: precise figures would help Russian planners assess remaining capabilities. The best available numbers therefore come from a mix of satellite imagery, photographic evidence, loss reports, insider commentary and defense‑analyst estimates. These methods can’t distinguish perfectly between airframes that are nominally “in inventory” and those that are fully operational, grounded for maintenance, or cannibalized for spare parts.
Analysts agree on the broad picture even if they differ on the exact count. All recent sources describe the Su‑27 component of the Ukrainian Air Force as small, aging and steadily shrinking under wartime strain, with no external supplier able to provide replacement Su‑27s because allies operate different fighter types. That’s why most careful assessments today present a range rather than a hard number: roughly two dozen Su‑27s on the books, and likely fewer than that available for combat on any given day.