An excavator cuts through the tail of a Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber

An excavator cuts through the tail of a Tupolev Tu-22M3 heavy bomber at a military airfield in the Ukrainian town of Poltava, some 340 km north-east of Kiev on November 12, 2002. Ukraine started to destroy decommissioned Tu-22M heavy bombers and air-to-ground cruise missiles of the X-22 class in order to meet its obligations under the 1993 agreement with the United States on strategic nuclear disarmament. According to the agreement thirty-one Tu-22M bombers and 225 cruise missiles X-22 will be scrapped in Ukraine by the end of 2004 in keeping with the U.S.-financed disarmament programme. UNIAN photo