For a successful counteroffensive, Ukraine needs to gain air superiority. The spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yurii Ihnat said this at a briefing, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"From the Air Force, for the offensive to be successful, it is necessary to win, first of all, superiority in the air, because without superiority in the air, to carry out offensive actions under the fire of enemy aircraft is a rather difficult issue, to put it mildly... To say that a counteroffensive should take place right now, without enhancing our air presence, our superiority is hardly possible," he said.
Ihnat noted that in the near future Patriot and SAMP/T anti-aircraft missile complexes will arrive in Ukraine from Western partners with people who have already learned to work on them and this will strengthen the advantage in certain regions where they will be deployed.
He added that the desired as soon as possible decision to provide Ukraine with modern multi-purpose aircraft of generation 4+, primarily F-16, would really help to quickly realize the Ukrainian dream of victory.
Ihnat considers it inappropriate to talk about a quick counteroffensive now.
"There is a lot of (talk) about a counteroffensive. I would not be so convincingly categorical that a counteroffensive is extremely necessary. It is clear that everyone has a great desire to liberate our territories, but the issue of this war, which many experts and Western analysts already said that it will be a war of exhaustion of technical and human resources, exhaustion of weapons, therefore it is extremely difficult to call this offensive or counteroffensive a simple one," the spokesman said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in late March, the Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov stated that the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian troops is planned in several directions, it may begin as early as April-May this year.
The Pentagon is investigating the leak of secret documents about plans for the preparation of a counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.