Khmilnyk Airport

The airport, a former Soviet strategic airbase, was closed following the dissolution of the USSR. Its closure was a direct result of military restructuring within the newly independent Ukrainian Armed Forces, international disarmament treaties (such as START I which led to the elimination of Ukraine's strategic bomber fleet), and the severe economic constraints of the 1990s which made maintaining such a large and specialized facility unsustainable.

The airbase is completely abandoned and in a state of ruin. Satellite imagery shows a large, 2.5 km (1.55 mi) concrete runway that is cracked, weathered, and overgrown with vegetation. The extensive network of taxiways and hardened aircraft revetments (shelters) typical of a Soviet bomber base are still clearly visible but are decaying. Most of the technical and administrative buildings are derelict or have been dismantled for building materials over the past decades. The land remains under the formal jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine but is not in active use.

During the Cold War, this was a key strategic military installation known as Khmilnyk Air Base (also referred to as Kumanivtsi Air Base). It was not a civilian airport. The base was home to the 943rd Naval Missile-Carrying Aviation Regiment (943-й МРАП) of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet's Naval Aviation. This elite regiment operated a fleet of Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger' bombers, which were later replaced by the more advanced Tupolev Tu-22M2 and Tu-22M3 'Backfire' supersonic, long-range strategic bombers. The primary mission of the regiment was anti-ship warfare, specifically targeting NATO aircraft carrier strike groups in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea using long-range, nuclear-capable cruise missiles like the Kh-22.

There are no known or credible plans to reopen or redevelop the Khmilnyk airbase. The cost to restore the runway and infrastructure to operational standards would be immense. Furthermore, its strategic military purpose is obsolete in the context of Ukraine's current military doctrine, and its proximity to the functioning Vinnytsia International Airport (UKWW) makes its revival as a civilian airport economically unviable. The site is likely to remain a derelict relic of the Cold War.