Ukraine is also being conservative with its airpower.
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – Russian warplanes are flying about 20 times more missions than their Ukrainian counterparts, though many never enter Ukrainian territory and simply lob long-range missiles from inside Russian airspace, a U.S. official said Friday.
Russia’s roughly 200 daily Ukraine-connected sorties compare to about five to 10 a day by Ukraine, which is down to about 56 operational warplanes, the official told reporters at the Pentagon.
There are several reasons for the conservative use of airpower over Ukraine on both sides, the defense official said. First, Russia has surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, in enough locations that it can shoot down Ukrainian jets in almost all parts of the country, and Ukrainians have held their jets back.
“They are not using their fixed-wing fighter aircraft very much,” the official said of Ukraine.
But the Russians are also being cautions, keeping their own aircraft outside of Ukraine and launching long-range missiles from fighter jets and bombers outside of Ukraine’s borders instead.
Russia has also shown “a general risk aversion and a cautiousness in the air,” the official said, despite their country-wide SAM coverage.
The Ukrainians have their own SAMs and shoulder-fired missiles, the official said.
“They’re moving stuff around. They’re being very nimble, and it’s proven effective. And I’m not just talking about mobile launchers,” the defense official said. “I’m talking about the use of shoulder-fired surface-air missile capability, as well … they are making the caution of the Russian pilots warranted, by the way they’re using the capabilities that they have.
On Friday, the Ukrainian ministry of defense claimed it had shot down a total of 57 Russian aircraft and seven Russian drones.That number could not be independently verified.