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Soviet Bomber up for Auction on Ebay

A Russian Tu-95MS at an airbase in Russia. Wikicommons / Gleb Osokin

A Soviet-made Tu-95MS long-range strategic bomber, supposedly sitting at an airfield in Ukraine, has made its way to auction on eBay with a starting price of $3 million.

The condition of the bomber is stated as "used," and it will require extra work before it is ready to fly, a description accompanying the listing says.

The cost of shipping to the ports of Mykolaiv or Odessa is included in the price, and the seller says that they can disassemble "the plane so [you] can get one or all of the turbines exclusively. Or the plane without the turbines s[e]parate."

"The plane was manufactured in 1987 and has been flown 454 hours and 24 minutes of the estimated 5,000 hours it is capable of. The overall condition of the plane is very decent," the listing said.

The seller's claim to worldwide shipping is qualified by a lengthy list of exceptions that essentially disqualify shipping to anywhere but North America and Western Europe.

The seller is a company headquartered in Switzerland that specializes in the "distribution of goods and raw materials from Ukraine" that has recently acquired the aircraft, which has been demilitarized and comes with all the documents necessary to facilitate its sale and delivery.

So far, only one bid has been made on the plane. Potential buyers can pay in cash or by international bank transfer.

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