Ukrainian aviation, although of Soviet design, plays an important role in air defense. Aviation made a particularly significant contribution at the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Yuriy Ignat, speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, spoke about the role of Ukrainian aviation in an exclusive interview with Channel 24 . According to him, aviation plays an important role.

Ukrainian fighters did not allow the enemy to fly further

He said that at the beginning of the invasion, Russia attacked Ukraine with numerous strike groups of aircraft. Our fighters intercepted enemy planes.

Especially since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, when the Russians began to attack Ukraine in large strike groups of aircraft. In particular, our fighters intercepted them. The Russians, when they saw that our guys were flying at them, did not actually enter the battle, but launched missiles from a great distance and left. They don’t need to get closer, because technologically they prevail,” Ignat said.

The speaker explained that one of the main tasks of our fighter aviation was to prevent the enemy from flying further and to push back under the action of our air defense system.

“Sometimes they retreated in such a way that they fell into the zone of destruction of our air defense. After all, this was one of the main tasks of the fighter aircraft of the Air Force – to prevent the enemy from flying further and to push him under the action of our air defense systems,” Ignat noted.

He said that due to the fact that in Ukraine the air fleet consists of Soviet types of aircraft, this made it difficult to work out on the enemy in the air.

“In order to work on the enemy, our pilots need to get close to the minimum distance, launch a missile and highlight the target with a radar until it hits. The enemy only needs to see our aircraft more than 100 kilometers away and launch a missile with an active homing head. Unfortunately, we are not here,” Ignat concluded.

Ukraine needs modern fighters

• Yuriy Ignat has repeatedly noted that Ukraine needs American F-16 multirole fighters. This type of aircraft will allow Ukraine to replace almost its entire fleet.
• According to Ignat, aircraft such as MiG and Su, which are in Ukraine, cannot effectively deal with cruise missiles and Shahids. He notes that although this is sometimes possible, it is the exception rather than the rule, as the efficiency of these aircraft is very low.
• Ignat emphasized that the MiG-29 is an outdated aircraft compared to modernized Russian fighters.
• The decision to transfer the F-16 depends on the United States, since this is an American-made aircraft. Currently, US President Joe Biden objected to the supply of fighter jets to Ukraine from America, but did not comment on the issue of their re-export.