The British newspaper The Times revealed that Ukraine has sought help from the West due to its suffering from losing control of its airspace early next month, which will jeopardize its planned spring offensive against Russian forces and leave its cities at the mercy of Russian bombing, as happened in Syria.
The newspaper reported that the assessment issued by the Ukrainian Air Force spokesman, Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, comes to reinforce the assessment included in the leaked Pentagon documents, which indicate that the ammunition of the air defense systems in Ukraine dating back to the Soviet era may run out by next May.
Ihnat was quoted as saying the situation was indeed very serious. If we lose the battle for control of our airspace, the consequences will be dire. The Russians will crush every one of our cities, as they did in Syria. Our nuclear power plants will be at risk as well. We will fight to protect our troops on the front lines.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia's inability to achieve air superiority during the early stages of the war came as a major surprise to Western analysts, according to the Times report.
Ukrainian air defenses and combat aircraft were able to shoot down several Russian planes in the first weeks of the war, which limited the operations of Russian fighters and helicopters outside the active front lines in the east, and prompted the Russian forces to rely on guided missiles to bomb their targets.
According to the Ukrainian official, the situation may change quickly unless Ukraine finds a quick solution to the problem caused by the disappearance of its stocks of Soviet-era Buk and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, which constitute 90% of its total supply. Ukraine's air defenses.
And he considered that «the problem is where can we get it from? Only the Russians produce it, so our stocks will run out sooner or later.
The newspaper said that an assessment of the Pentagon last February indicated that the Ukrainian air defenses might run out of weapons in early May, which disappointed Ukrainian military officials, as they had been pressing for solutions to this urgent issue since September of last year.
Okaz (London, Jeddah) @okaz_online
