Battle for air supremacy over Ukraine
US sees ‘risk-averse behavior by Russian pilots’
03/23/2022, 11:31 p.m
According to a Pentagon official, the air defense systems that the Ukrainian military receives from the United States and other Western countries are being used “very effectively”. For this reason, the Russian Air Force is still failing to capture the airspace over Ukraine.
According to an assessment by the US Department of Defense, the Russian armed forces have not regained air sovereignty over Ukraine about a month after the start of the war. The airspace remains contested, a senior Pentagon official said in a telephone briefing with journalists. The US and its allies worked to provide the Ukrainians with more long-range anti-aircraft systems.
The Ukrainians are using the current systems “very effectively”. That’s one reason “why we’re seeing quite risk-averse behavior on the part of some Russian pilots.” The Pentagon official said Ukrainian troops managed to push back Russian attackers east and northeast of the capital, Kyiv. In some contested areas, the Ukrainians not only managed to defend themselves, they even went on the offensive against Russian troops. “In the case of Kyiv, they’re basically forcing them into a defensive position.”
The focus of the Russian armed forces currently seems to be on eastern Ukraine. The briefing went on to say that US President Joe Biden’s approved arms shipments from a $800 million military aid package for Ukraine would be launched very soon. According to Biden last week, this should provide Ukraine with thousands of anti-tank weapons, around 800 anti-aircraft missiles, 7,000 firearms such as submachine guns, numerous grenade launchers, 20 million rounds of ammunition and even drones.
US says Kremlin is ‘desperate’
The Pentagon reported on Monday that Russia was stepping up its military offensive from the air and at sea because the advance of its own troops was being held up by the “skill” of the Ukrainian army. The Kremlin is “desperately trying” to increase its combat momentum, a senior US defense official in Washington said. The Russian troops are “frustrated and confused” by a Ukrainian resistance that, despite being outnumbered in soldiers and armed, withstood the attacks.
The US official said that only a few of the missions involved close-ranged combat, with Moscow primarily firing air-to-surface missiles from Russian or Belarusian airspace at Ukrainian targets. “They don’t venture very far or long into Ukrainian airspace because the Ukrainians defend their airspace with great skill.”