Ukraine’s new defensive strategy, motivated by a shortage of artillery ammunition and the fatigue of its fighters following last spring’s failed counteroffensive, has not yet borne fruit. Since their withdrawal from Avdiivka (Donetsk, in the east of the country) on February 17, kyiv’s troops have continued to gradually give ground to the Russians. However, while perfecting their new containment plan once morest Moscow, since the aforementioned date, the country’s anti-aircraft defenses have achieved a surprising success: shooting down 13 Russian military aircraft, including one airborne early warning and control aircraft, designed to fix targets. on the ground and warn the Russian bombers of the launch of surface-to-air missiles while they carry out their attacks.
Ukraine’s good anti-aircraft streak began the same day they withdrew from Avdiivka, when two Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers and a Su-35 fighter were shot down in the east of the country, according to Mikola Oleschuk, commander in chief of the Air Force. from kyiv. Since then, Russian planes have not stopped falling; Thus, eight other Su-34s have been destroyed, as well as one Su-35. According to him think tank American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the losses are significant for Russia, since its air force would have regarding 300 combat aircraft of these models.
Added to the Russian losses, on February 23, was an A-50, a reconnaissance aircraft equipped with a radar whose function is to guide fighter pilots between the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses and indicate the targets they must destroy on the ground. Furthermore, the Beriev A-50 was destroyed on Russian territory, far from Ukraine, between the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. According to kyiv, this is one of its most important successes – “an unprecedented achievement” – because it forces Moscow to move away from the front to deploy these aircraft, which support the combat aircraft, thus making their work more difficult. The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat, has assured that, since the downing of the A-50, the Russians have not placed an aircraft of this type once more over the Sea of Azov, where they normally operated. He has also suggested that its downfall forces fighter-bombers and fighters to move closer to their targets, putting the Kremlin at risk of being hit.
Guided bombs
The Su-34 is a long-range two-seat fighter-bomber and attack aircraft manufactured by the Russian state company Sukhoi. In the ground offensive they have been conducting since December, the Russians use it as a tactical bomber to support their battalions on the ground. These fighter planes are the ones that launch the guided bombs that have caused significant damage to Ukrainian troops in recent weeks. The Su-35, designed by the same manufacturer, is a much smaller, more agile and maneuverable single-seater. For this reason, the demolition of two of them has been especially celebrated by Oleschuk.
Despite the blow taken in recent weeks, Moscow’s military pilots have not stopped. Russian forces, according to ISW analysts, seem to be willing to run the risk of losing new bombers to achieve the advances that, very little by little, they are obtaining in the Donetsk region, following the departure from Avdiivka and the abandonment of the Kiev troops from their advance strategy to concentrate on the defense of the territory they control, reducing the loss of material, saving ammunition and ensuring the lives of their combatants.
Russian air superiority is one of Ukraine’s weak points. Hence, the Netherlands and Denmark have committed to delivering F-16 fighter-bombers to kyiv; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has assured that his country hopes to receive them in the middle of this year. The agreements to receive the aircraft include training for Ukrainian pilots in Western countries so that they learn to operate them, as well as cooperation in the maintenance and repair of these aircraft. In November, Zelensky assured that without control of the sky, Ukraine would not be able to recover the territory that Russia continues to occupy. “In 2024, the priority is to expel Russia from the sky,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said in January. To which he added: “He who controls the sky will determine when and how the war will end.”
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