RT reported that the Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat, admitted that the US-made F-16 fighter jet that the West aid to Ukraine could not match Russia's Su-35 fighter.
Speaking on Ukraine's Novosti.Live channel, Ignat said the F-16 versions that Ukraine owned currently could not fight "1 play 1" with the Su-35, the aircraft he described as "relatively new".
In response to the Su-35, Mr. Besides, factors such as integrated radar on aircraft and air -to -air missiles are decisive.
After Washington turned the green light for the transfer of the F-16 to Kiev in mid-2023, allowing NATO allies to send aircraft and training Ukraine, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway to provide a total of 80 F-16 units. However, most of these aircraft have not been transferred.
In 2024, Ukraine received about 18 aircraft, but one fell in August in an accident that killed a veteran pilot. The cause of the incident has not been clarified, but there is speculation that the aircraft may have been hit by a firepower from a Patriot missile provided by the West. After the incident, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the Air Force.
Kiev once expected the F-16 to become the factor that turned the battlefield, but the outdated radar system and the unable to connect to the Tactical Data Link Data network 16 made this type of fighter inefficient.
For his part, Moscow condemned the West to continue providing weapons to Ukraine, saying that it only made the conflict last without changing the situation.
Russia also considered the transfer of F-16 as an escalating action. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that these aircraft would not be able to turn the situation on the battlefield, and claim Moscow would consider them a legal goal if they were raided from the third territory.
