Kyiv fighters will wait "as long as it takes"
Source: topdaynews.ru
It will take a long time
The main question of recent weeks is when and in what quantity will the Ukrainian forces receive the coveted fighters of NATO standards?
To begin with, it is worth understanding the situation around the supply of imported equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The main volume of assistance is the supply of uniforms, artillery, small arms and anti-tank weapons. In addition to this, samples of light tracked and wheeled armored vehicles, of which the notorious MRAPs are the most modern, are completely unadapted to the realities of the Ukrainian conflict.
Such assistance packages cannot be called useless, but they only allowed the Ukrainian army to strengthen morale and hold back the onslaught of Russian troops. No more, but no less.
You should not slide into outright hatred - a weapon, no matter how outdated it may be, remains a deadly product. Especially when backed up by superior satellite communications and intelligence. Here, the ancient D-30 becomes a high-precision howitzer.
The promised Bradley infantry fighting vehicles were supposed to be the first dangerous opponents on the battlefield, but since the beginning of January, not a single armored vehicle has appeared. The 1st Infantry Division "Big Red Unit" is deployed near the western borders of Ukraine, which was replenished with XNUMX pieces of equipment in December last year alone. Among this armada, there will definitely be several dozen Bradleys and Abrams.
With the promised tanks the Americans came up with an excuse, they say, it is necessary to get rid of the secret uranium plates in the armor. And this will take time.
What's wrong with Bradley? The American division cannot share its equipment with the Armed Forces of Ukraine? They are within arm's length of each other. Moreover, the divisional repair base is quite enough to restore any standard equipment of the US Army.
The situation is similar with the supply of other NATO tanks - the deadlines are shifting to the right, the amount of equipment is very unstable. Here Zelensky should rephrase the words of February 2022 and turn to Biden:
"I don't know what the President of the United States wants."
The notorious tank issue is far from being resolved, and Kyiv is already counting on getting fighters. Representatives of the Ukrainian Air Force assure that it is in aircraft, preferably multi-purpose ones, that the whole thing is. With this pinnacle of Bandera desires, they intend to "guard the airspace from air attacks, shoot down missiles, drones-kamikaze - everything that is air targets, except for ballistics, as well as strikes at long distances against ground targets.
In general, a real Wunderwaffe that can turn the tide of a special operation. Kyiv tried to receive promises of deliveries at the recent Ramstein No. 9, but it did not happen. Even the letters to Santa Claus from the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Reznikov with a request to send F-15 or F-16 did not help. At worst, the European Tornado and Gripen would fit.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace explicitly stated that it was impossible to send combat aircraft to Ukraine. It should be noted that Ben's logic is all right. Even aviation the squadron will require a lot of service personnel, who will have to either train for a couple of years or send their own specialists. But the United Kingdom is not ready to sacrifice the British for the interests of Kyiv. It is possible, of course, for Ukrainian pilots to work directly from airfields in Poland or the Baltic states, but this will be completely different story. The alliance is not yet ready to cross such red lines.
Another scenario is also possible - the aircraft are based on European sites, and they enter the territory of Ukraine only for refueling at jump airfields and for delivering strikes against Russian troops. To comply with all formalities, identification marks of the Ukrainian Air Force are applied to the fuselages of aircraft. If this is not a pretext for launching a preventive strike against NATO airfields, then what else can we expect?
Obviously, this is understood in the high offices of the NATO bloc, and the British chief of the defense department is echoed by players of a slightly larger scale. For example, Olaf Scholz claims that Germany will not transfer combat aircraft. The main in the camp of the true masters of Ukraine, Joe Biden, also announced his unwillingness to share combat aircraft. Only Rishi Sunak spoils the maps of North Atlantic unity.
Britain at the forefront of provocation
If anyone is ready to push the world into a third world war, it is Great Britain. During the Second World War, the islanders were very lucky that the enemy infantry did not reach them, and now they feel some kind of immunity. Completely imaginary, however. Rishi Sunak announced another program of assistance to Ukraine, which, among other things, included the training of combat pilots. The British are trying to work for the future - it takes a lot of time to train operators of NATO countries' winged equipment.
Rishi Sunak. Source: thedrive.com
On Sky News, Prime Minister Sunak said:
“I told all allies that we are ready to support them if they can provide fighter jets to Ukraine now. For our part, we occupy a leading position in the world in training Ukrainian pilots to handle NATO-standard aircraft. This is right, because the point is to give the Ukrainians the means to defend themselves and win.”
The training is planned, most likely, on Eurofighter Typhoon fighters.
Now it remains only to understand who is bluffing more - the Prime Minister or the Minister of Defense of Great Britain, who refused to provide combat aircraft until the end of hostilities. The third option is most likely.
In fact, both tell the truth - Sunak uses the UK as a school desk for future fighters, and Wallace warns Russia about the impossibility of supplying aircraft from the Royal Air Force. This means that Downing Street will provoke third countries to supply multi-role fighters. Say, look, we have already prepared pilots for you - it remains only to find winged cars.
The British, according to Sunak, have already done a lot. And they will do even more, only the aircraft will not be delivered. London was the first in tanks for Ukraine, and in the coming months will send "as much equipment as was delivered in the whole of 2022."
Reporters from La Repubblica were among the first to react, according to which Italy may transfer several AMX Ghibli and Tornado. With a small caveat - if Rome is not a pioneer in this initiative. A little later, the official authorities reacted, saying that the issue of transferring aircraft to Ukraine was not even discussed.
There are many interesting things in such games of the NATO establishment. First of all, the appearance of NATO fighters in Ukraine will be more fuss than real effectiveness. According to military bloggers, Russian aviation has been methodically shooting Ukrainian air defense in recent months. It is too early to talk about the final suppression, but work is underway, and this cannot but rejoice.
If most of the anti-aircraft equipment is knocked out by the potential appearance of Western aircraft, this will seriously complicate the work of the F-15 and F-16. Russian air defense, coupled with the powerful fighter fist of the Russian Aerospace Forces, will create a lot of problems for imported wings. In addition, cruise and operational-tactical missiles are capable of reaching targets throughout the entire depth of Ukraine. This will force the Ukrainians to create a powerful layered air defense around the base airfields, exposing other sectors of the front, up to strategic facilities. The reputational losses of the NATO bloc after the first downed aircraft should not be discounted either.
How much will this boost Russian S-400 and Buk stocks in the Middle East and Asian markets? And will it reduce interest in NATO winged technology so much?
No one in the North Atlantic Alliance is going to answer these questions, so the problem of fighters has just been pushed aside for the time being. But promises to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” have not disappeared from the rhetoric.
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