Despite Moscow’s ground forces pushing westward across the frontlines in the war-torn country, numbers from Kyiv’s air force show that Ukraine has shot down 14 Russian jets in two weeks, causing devastating losses to its aerial fleet.
Just one day after Kyiv claimed to have shot down another Su-34 near the Russian-controlled southern city of Mariupol at around 9 a.m. local time, on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force reported it had downed a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber.
Kyiv announced on Thursday that since February 17, its air force has destroyed two Su-35s and ten Su-34s. On the same date, February 23, Ukraine shot down an A-50 airborne early warning and control plane. Russian fighter jets and the highly valued and expensive A-50 aircraft coordinate assaults.
Reports of casualties have hurt the Kremlin, even though Russia’s air force is more vital and more sophisticated than Ukraine’s. Russia has made significant territorial advances with its ground forces in recent weeks, including capturing the crucial Donetsk city of Avdiivka on the eastern frontlines. In stark contrast, they have shot down double-digit numbers of jets in weeks.
Western analysts have concluded that Russian forces had made advances against Ukrainian troops around the Dnieper River in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, west of Avdiivka, and along the frontlines in the northeast, both west and south of Kreminna, a city under Moscow’s control.
When Russian pilots perish in the crash, the country will lose more than just pricey and precious aircraft; it will also lose necessary knowledge and experience.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. research tank, assessed on Saturday
that Russians are willing to risk aviation defeat in exchange for tactical gains in the east quadrant of Ukraine. In its most recent evaluation, the think tank concluded that Moscow is probably trying to re-impose air superiority around Avdiivka to bolster its tactical advances.
According to ISW, Russia probably possesses about 300 Sukhoi fighter aircraft, which include Su-34 and Su-35 variants.
Colonel Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, stated that Moscow has recently refrained from sending any remaining A-50s to the area surrounding the Sea of Azov. Ignat further noted that for Russian fighter jets to drop aerial bombs, they would have to “fly closer” to their targets.
Before Kyiv withdrew in the middle of February, Russia increased its use of glide bombs to conquer Avdiivka, destroying Ukrainian fortifications in the former bastion.
