Russia has the best air defense in the world. C-130 is a big slow moving target. Even in Afghanistan they operated only at night.

They had gunships in Afghanistan and US still lost, not sure I see your point here. Not to mention the Taliban didn’t have close to the anti-aircraft capabilities that the Russian military has. AC-130s work fine for bombing defenseless hospitals, but against a force with radar, electronic countermeasures, anti-aircraft missiles, fighter jets, and all the other tools that a modern military has access to? I think the gunships would not be nearly as effective as you think

What, are there Russian hospitals in need of bombing? C130 can’t operate if there is air defense