The head of the Information Department of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mr. Yury Ignat, admitted that fighter jets including the F-16 and Mirage supported by Kiev by the West could not keep up with the power of Russian fighters and missile systems.
One of the reasons for the power imbalance, according to Mr. Ignat, is that European aid fighter jets are often outdated, not the latest version.
Unfortunately, today, Russia has aircraft that can detect from a longer distance and missiles that fire far away, even compared to the F-16, the senior Ukrainian official frankly affirmed.
Not stopping there, Mr. Ignat continued to share that the fighter jets that Ukraine has owned since the Soviet era such as the MiG-29 or Su-27 are not on par with Russian equipment. They are like Makarov Pistols fighting with Snipers, said Mr. Ignat.
Mr. Ignat also admitted last month that US-made patriot air defense systems are having difficulty against Russian missiles. At the same time, he said that Russia's Iskander cruise missile is very flexible and capable of dropping traps in the final stage to cause patriot air defense systems to fall into a state of target disruption.
The Ukrainian official had earlier confirmed in March that Kiev's F-16 versions of the F-16 were "unable to fight a Dual Hand" with the Su-35 - one of Moscow's most modern, multi-purpose fighter jets.
Since 2023, Washington has allowed NATO allies to transfer US-made F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
The number of Ukrainian F-16s provided has not been officially announced, but it is estimated that Kiev received about 18 last year, of which at least 3 were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly criticized the Western supply of weapons to Ukraine, saying it would not change the conflict situation, and condemned the F-16 transfer as an escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned that if these fighters take off from a base outside Ukraine, Moscow will consider it a hostile target.
