Without F-16s, Ukraine has to destroy Russian aircraft on ground — Colonel Svitan

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"The Russians have about 40 airfields along the perimeter of Ukraine, if we look from the side of the fighting and the border, where they have combat aircraft, from one to three squadrons, and one squadron has 12 aircraft, that is, 36 in total. These are large forces and means that the Russians have prepared to carry out combat missions, but they cannot simply approach the front line because of our air defense. That is why they use long-range bombers, such as Su-34, to launch bombs from a distance of 60-70 km," the expert said.

Svitan emphasized that the Russian Su-34s deployed to Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions are based near the Rostov airfield, which was recently allegedly attacked by drones.

"As long as we don't have F-16s, we can neither break them down nor drive them away in the air, and our anti-aircraft missile systems can only reach 70 kilometers, so the bomb itself won't reach. And our ground-based ones tried to destroy, these several waves of drones - most likely, it was the work of special services, the HUR or the SBU," explains the expert.

The military expert added that a well-prepared operation can destroy at least a squadron of Russian aircraft on the ground.

• 35 UAVs allegedly attacked Russian territory at night and in the morning of Sunday, December 17. Sources in the Ukrainian intelligence services said that the drones attacked a military airfield in the Rostov region, Russia, causing damage.