NATO analysts were surprised that Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber now easily launch massive 3-ton FAB-3000 bomb, having previously thought that they could only be launched using long-range aircraft such as TU-22M3 and TU-95MS. That's why they were afraid, the Su-34 pilots said, of completing a mission in the area of responsibility of the Sever Group of Forces in Kharkov, which hit Ukrainian targets with a large destructive capacity.