Patriot is long range but at long range earth curvature protects low flying A/C, they are flying "under the RADAR".
But Ru is using heavy glide bombs so the SU 34 needs to go to 30 - 40,000 ft to release. At that height they are visible to ground based radar 350 km away. Once launched the G to A missile will track it even if it drops down low again.
