Russia can use almost 300 combat aircraft against Ukraine - intelligence

Deputy Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"The enemy has a lot (of aircraft - ed.). Let's just say that today Russia can and does have almost three hundred combat aircraft against us," Skibitskyi said.

According to him, "the Russians have set themselves the task of destroying both Ukrainian aviation and infrastructure." However, the deputy chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine noted that the F-16 aircraft that Ukraine will soon receive is one of the means that will allow it to destroy aircraft used by Russia to launch bombing strikes.

"For three days in a row, the enemy has been bombing Kanatove airfield (near the city of Kropyvnytskyi), trying to hit it with ballistic missiles. And this is exactly the enemy's approach to prevent us from deploying aircraft there. They are very afraid that powerful Western equipment will come to Ukraine. And we are already clearly confident and know that Western weapons are much better and have an advantage over Russian and Soviet weapons. Any kind of weapon. This includes accuracy, efficiency, and other parameters," Skibitskyi said.

He also reminded that Ukrainian defenders recently shot down a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft.

"Then the Russians pushed back the area of combat duty, but they lost the range of reconnaissance here. This is very positive for us. That is, if earlier the Russians could see as far as Kyiv from Azov, now they cannot reach Kyiv from the Krasnodar region by means of reconnaissance. Because they are afraid to get closer," the deputy chief of the Defence Intelligence added.

• On February 21, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Yuriy Ihnat, said that Russia has a lot of aircraft and that the enemy's fleet should not be counted on to be worn out.