The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had succeeded in completely extinguishing the Ukrainian air defenses.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it "targeted military infrastructure, air defense systems, military airports and the Ukrainian air force."
Russia said on Thursday that it had used "high-precision weapons" to extinguish Ukraine's air defense systems.
"The military infrastructure, air defense systems, military airfields and air forces of Ukraine have been suppressed with high-precision weapons," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a written statement.
It also added that "the special military operation in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, did not pose a threat to civilians in the country."
Russia has launched a military operation in Ukraine and is targeting key areas of cities with weapons and missiles, according to reports.
Early today, Thursday, February 24, 2022, explosions were reported in several Ukrainian provinces, including the capital, Kiev, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced what he called a "special military operation" in the Donbas region controlled by separatist forces. pro-Russian.
With few good air defense options, Ukraine's best strategy is likely to be to abandon the challenge of Russian freedom of movement in the air over the front lines, and instead try to inflict steady losses on any deep penetration or air attack sorties through defense in depth.
As Russian forces continue to build up around Ukraine's borders with both Russia and Belarus, the disparity of forces on the ground, at sea, and in the air. This significantly limits the options available to Kiev in the event of a Russian invasion, but this does not mean that Russian aircraft will have complete freedom to operate in Ukrainian airspace.
The Ukrainian Air Force (UkrAF) can use approximately 50 Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-29s and just over 30 Sukhoi Su-27 fighters, along with about 12 Su-24 bombers and a similar number of ground attack aircraft. Su-25 upgraded. These aircraft were manufactured during the Soviet era, and although they have received various Ukrainian domestic avionics upgrades over the past decade, they are still largely based on old Soviet-era air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon systems.
By contrast, Ukrainian military intelligence has estimated that the Russian Air Force (VKS) can count on 313 fixed-wing combat aircraft within an easy range of the border at present. 110 fixed-wing combat aircraft of the 6th Air Force and Army Air Defense (6 A VVS PVO) stationed in the Western Military District and more than 200 in the 4th Air Force and Army of Air Defense (4 A VVS PVO) and the 43rd Marine Independent Assault Aviation Regiment (43 OMShAP) Stationed in the Southern Military District. This permanent force has been reinforced by the temporary relocation of several regiments from other military districts to areas bordering Ukraine in recent months.
One example is the 12 Su-25SM ground attack aircraft that flew from the Eastern Military District to Belarus in early February. With the exception of some of the older Su-27s in the 4A VVS PVO, most of the fixed-wing combat aircraft that the VKS could rely on in any operation against Ukraine have either been manufactured recently or have undergone extensive upgrade programs and are in their midst. In a direct clash with the UkrAF, VKS fighters can also rely on the most modern and longer range R-77-1 active radar-guided missiles for long-range engagements and the R-73M heat-seeking missiles at close range. For attack operations, the VKS uses a wide range of radar-guided stand-off missiles, GLONASS/GPS, and TV-guided bombs.
Ukraine has a very limited number of Soviet-era surface-to-air SAM systems, including the long-range S-300PS/PT (SA-10), 2K12 'Kub' (SA-6) and 9K37M 'Buk M-1' systems ( SA-11) medium-range mobile and short-range mobile 9K330 'Tor' systems. All of these systems have been locally updated to improve their performance and make them less vulnerable to Russian countermeasures. However, it still relies on well-known missiles and radars that are routinely rehearsed by Russian pilots. The Ukrainian SA-10's long-range locations are largely static due to a chronic shortage of key Russian-made spare parts, leaving them vulnerable to rapid destruction from long-range Russian strikes at the start of any engagement.
Why didn't the United States and its allies provide Ukraine with advanced air defense systems?
The confluence of fears of provoking Russia, fears of technology falling into Russia's hands, and doubts about Ukraine's ability to operate the systems — prevented the United States and its allies from approving Ukrainian requests for advanced surface-to-air missiles in the years following Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014,” current and former US defense officials and experts told NBC News.
Those calculations seemed plausible at the time, but they helped keep Ukraine largely defenseless against what experts say would be a crushing display of air power if Russia launched a large-scale invasion. US officials are scrambling to find ways to help Ukrainian forces sustain themselves, but there are few good options.
“We all definitely missed an opportunity,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired four-star Air Force general who was the supreme commander of NATO forces during the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, and was involved in the ensuing controversy over how much aid should be given to Ukraine.
He added: “The West, NATO and all countries have missed an opportunity. I think we're looking at it retroactively now and thinking that maybe we should have made a different decision."
Retired Admiral James Stavridis, who preceded Breedlove as NATO Supreme Commander and is now a national security contributor to NBC News, agreed with this view.
"I think air defense would have been a very smart move," he said. If we put more in there sooner, we wouldn't be where we are now."
Decisions by US presidents of both parties set the stage. President Barack Obama refused to provide any lethal assistance after the fall of Crimea in 2014, rejecting the recommendations of top national security officials. President Donald Trump only signed off on the Javelin anti-tank missile after a delay in the aid package led to accusations of misconduct. Nor did it provide air defense to Ukraine.
The Biden administration has been accused of being slow to act, too. By the time US intelligence agencies concluded six months ago that Russia was planning a possible invasion, Stavridis said, there was not enough time to train Ukrainians to operate advanced air defenses such as Patriots.
Defense officials said a US military team visited Ukraine in December to assess its air defenses, but concluded there was not much new equipment that could be of use.
No one has proposed weapons systems that could enable Ukraine to repel a large-scale attack by one of the world's most powerful military forces. Advanced air defenses would probably provide a level of deterrence now absent. Analysts say the prospect of shooting down the bombers in flight may force Russian President Vladimir Putin to reassess his strategy.
Ukraine has some ability to resist an air attack. Ukraine acquired a small number of last-minute surface-to-air missiles only this month from European partners. Lithuania and Latvia provided some of the shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which the Afghan mujahideen used to drive out the Russians in the 1980s after receiving them from the CIA.
This capability has bolstered Ukraine's current air defenses, which previously consisted of largely outdated Russian-made systems highly vulnerable to electronic jamming, experts say.
“It is also true that Russia lacks experience in flying through contested airspace,” said Dara Masikot, a senior policy researcher at RAND Corp.
She said: “If they carry out tactical flights inside Ukrainian airspace to carry out a major operation, it is possible that there will be losses of some Russian aircraft. Ultimately, however,
the sheer amount of combat air power that Russia can bring, particularly with its long-range precision strikes, is likely to overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses."
Once Russia has air superiority, it will be free to destroy the Ukrainian army from great distances, without endangering ground forces.