Huge scissors operated by an excavator cut the bombers' noses along the lines specified by Ukrainian and U.S. experts so that the bombers could never be reconstructed.
The cutting, conducted at an airbase near Pryluky, 130 kilometers east of the capital, Kiev, by the Raytheon Technical Services Co., went on for about 25 minutes.
Army engineers then cut the bomber into pieces with chainsaws.
Only a few reporters were admitted to the closely guarded and brief ceremony, attended by a military delegation from the United States, which helped fund the destruction.
As the official dismantling ceremony began, the Tu-160 stood with its tail already cut off and its hull gutted at Pryluky.
The Tu-160, the last and most expensive warplane constructed in the Soviet Union, is a copycat version of the United States' B-1 bomber, capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound.
A delegation of U.S. defense officials, headed by Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Brigadier General Thomas Kuenning, attended the dismantling.
Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal with the 1991 Soviet collapse, including 130 SS-19 missiles, 46 SS-24 missiles and 44 strategic bombers.
Ukraine has since handed over to Moscow three Tu-95s and eight Tu-160s, as well as 581 missiles, reducing its debts for Russian natural gas supplies by $275 million.
Ukraine become a nuclear free state when it shipped its last nuclear warheads to Russia in exchange for around $1 billion worth of fuel for its nuclear power plants.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry asked the United States for assistance in dismantling 38 Tu-160s and Tu-95s and 487 Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles, signing a corresponding treaty in 1997. Last October, it asked for more funding to dismantle the country's Tu-22M bombers and Kh-22 missiles.
By Friday, 10 Tu-160 and 20 Tu-95 Ukrainian bombers had been eliminated, and one Tu-160 and two Tu-95 aircraft were turned into static displays or converted for laboratory use. Four remaining Tu-95s are to be dismantled by May, and all work under the disarmament program is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 4.
Nonferrous metals from the dismantled bombers have been sold to fund social programs for military officers and their families, and to improve military units participating in the disarmament program, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. (Reuters, AP)
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