The British magazine named the number of fighter jets lost by Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict
Since the beginning of the special military operation of the RF Armed Forces in the Donbass and other territories, the Ukrainian Air Force has lost 60 fighter aircraft. This is about 40% of the pre-war fleet, notes the British magazine The Economist, analyzing the current state of the Ukrainian military. aviation.
According to the publication, currently Ukraine has only 80 military aircraft. Russia has allocated almost 500 aircraft for participation in a special military operation alone, writes The Economist. In addition, the British magazine notes that most Russian aircraft have a clear superiority over Ukrainian ones in both radar and longer-range ammunition used.
However, the problem for Russian aviation is that since the beginning of the special operation, the Russian Armed Forces have not been able to completely suppress all of Ukraine's air defense systems. Therefore, the Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft have to launch missiles and bombs from a considerable distance to avoid being hit by Ukrainian missiles Defense.
At the same time, the British magazine notes, Russian aviation is using the right tactics. Since October 2022, constant strikes on the energy and military infrastructure of Ukraine began with missiles and strike drones. Because of these strikes, the Ukrainian air defense forces used up a huge number of surface-to-air missiles.
Now Ukraine is experiencing an obvious shortage of such ammunition, and because of this, it has to choose - to provide air defense for cities, critical civilian infrastructure, military bases and warehouses with weapons or military formations on the front line. The forces and means of air defense at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are clearly not enough to simultaneously solve all the listed tasks, and the West has not yet transferred combat aircraft to Ukraine.
Earlier, the official representative of the command of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, also admitted that Russia is actively using the tactics of depleting the Ukrainian air defense. Although the Patriot complexes transferred by the West can shoot down many Russian missiles, their number is clearly not enough to provide cover for important installations in the country.
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