The Soviets made some effort - particularly early in the war - to launch a strategic bombing campaign against Germany, but their efforts were ineffective due to poor training and inadequate aircraft and they quickly had to be abandoned as the advancing German troops either overran airfields or presented much more pressing concerns to Soviet leadership.

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When the war broke out, the Soviets' long range bomber force consisted of twin-engined DB-3/Il-4 medium bombers and a handful of more modern Pe-8 and Yer-2 bombers. After the bombing of Moscow began in July, retaliatory strikes were ordered, and the meager force of Pe-8s was slated for the job. They were relocated to an airfield near Leningrad, and by August, they were performing limited strikes on Berlin. Soviet Naval Aviation would lead the effort, and by the end of 1941 a total of 549 long range bomber sorties would be flown by Pe-8s, Yer-2s, and Il-4s against Germany. Unfortunately, the efforts were ineffective. Soviet aviation was notoriously poorly trained at the time, and many bombers failed to find their targets entirely, rarely striking them with the meager bombload they could bring that far.

Further south, the Soviet air forces on the Black Sea performed strategic strikes on a much closer target - the Romanian oil fields. Efforts here focused on disrupting the Ploesti-Constanta oil pipeline, and they were initially unsuccessful due to heavy air defenses in the region. However, an experimental system using a TB-3 as a carrier aircraft for fighters - Zveno - was stationed in Crimea, and it would prove capable of striking the targets. In several instances, Zveno missions were launched against the pipeline, using a TB-3 to carry an I-16 under either wing to a safe launch point outside of Axis air defenses. Once launched, the I-16s would speed in with their payload of two 250kg bombs (larger than they could take off with under their own power) and hit the pipeline faster than the air defenses could react. Here, they were surprisingly successful - some 30 missions were flown against various targets on the Romanian coast on daylight raids with surprising success before the aircraft were withdrawn due to the advance of Axis forces in Ukraine.

In 1942, Soviet aviation underwent a major reorganization, and their long-range bombers were grouped together into the Long Range Air Force (ADD). The ADD would increase the scale of the bombing - launching missions of over 200 aircraft at a time - but missions against Germany would remain limited. By the end of 1942, over 1,000 sorties had targeted Germany, and allied capitals of Helsinki and Bucharest would be targeted by strikes. However, Soviet long-range aviation remained limited compared to tactical aviation. By the time the focus had shifted to operational-level targets like railheads in the leadup to Kursk, ADD forces had only 700 aircraft on hand. In 1944, the focus shifted back to cities, particularly the capitals of German allies like Finland and Romania. Helsinki was hit by three successive raids ranging from 200 to 800 bombers that dropped 2,400 tons of bombs, and Bucharest was hit with a 8,000 tons from 1,100 bombers over four nights. At the end of 1944, the ADD was reorganized into the 18th Air Army, which would continue to support the war effort with strategic strikes on German cities.

Altogether, the Soviet effort was overshadowed by that of Britain and America - with 7,158 Soviet aircraft dropping 6,700 tons of bombs on Germany during the war. This constituted 3.1% of Soviet bomber sorties, 0.5% of all Allied "strategic" sorties against German-occupied territory and 0.2% of all bombs dropped on it.

Notably, the Soviets did make at least a token effort to support the Allied strategic bombing as they advanced closer to Germany. To foster cooperation, the Soviets offered the use of several airfields close to the front that would allow Allied bombers to land at to refuel and restock after hitting targets normally out of their range deep inside Axis territory. This was to be built upon until a permanent presence of American bombers could be established in Soviet-occupied territory. Designated Operation Frantic, these flights began in June 1944, with 130 B-17s and 70 P-51s taking off from Italy, striking targets in Hungary, and landing in Soviet-occupied Poltava. From there they launched one raid out of Poltava against Romania before being resupplied and performing another ferry mission back to Italy.

A second mission performed by the 8th Air Force out of Britain was less successful. Though they bombed Germany and landed in Poltava fine, the Germans tracked the bombers to their base and launched a night raid on the airfield, destroying 43 of the 75 B-17s at Poltava. This disaster led to the collapse of the shuttle bombing effort. The US wanted to permanently station night fighters at the airfields to protect its bombers, but the Soviets refused, so the US dropped plans for a permanent deployment of heavy bombers out of Soviet territory. A few more missions were flown as part of Operation Frantic, but after the last one in September 1944, no further effort was made to station Allied aircraft in Soviet territory.