Ukrainian soldiers open fire in Bakhmut (Photo: Reuters).
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June with the aim of breaking through the front line in the southeast. However, the offensive "unfortunately lacked one key element, which was air power," retired General James Jones told RFE/RL in an interview.
“That means Russia has a lot of time to lay mines in areas where they think Ukrainian ground forces will attack. That slows things down,” added General Jones, a former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe who served as national security adviser to former US President Barack Obama.
According to the Washington Post , Ukraine’s counteroffensive is being led by NATO-trained units. Ukraine has also made a small but significant breakthrough in recent weeks as Kiev forces crossed the Dnieper River and advanced into Russian-controlled territory.
Volodymyr Fito, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, said Ukraine would try to cut off Russian supply chains when the cold weather arrives and push them out of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his people to prepare for a new wave of Russian air strikes on Kiev's infrastructure as winter approaches. He also predicted a fierce Russian offensive on the eastern front, where the city of Avdiivka is located.
Ukraine's Chief of the General Staff Valery Zaluzhny said last month that the war between Russia and Ukraine was at a stalemate and that there would be no breakthrough in the near future. He also warned that in a prolonged war of attrition, Russia would have the advantage.
Since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive, Kiev has seen that Russia’s tactical air power, which is superior in both quantity and quality, is posing an increasing challenge to it. The air force has played a key role in Russia’s military operations in Ukraine during more than a year of conflict.
Russian warplanes have stepped up support for ground forces as they accept riskier, potentially costly attacks to halt the advance of Ukrainian counterattacks.
Lieutenant General Mykola Oeshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian air force, admitted that if Ukraine gained air superiority, the pace of the counterattack would be much faster.
He explained that one of the main rules for gaining the upper hand in battles is to stop the enemy's advance and force the other side to go on the defensive, followed by gaining superiority and control of the airspace.
According to him, Ukrainian aircraft are significantly inferior in technical characteristics to Russian ones, making it difficult for Kiev to shoot down Moscow fighters in air combat.
General Oeshchuk said that despite operating in difficult conditions, the Ukrainian Air Force managed to complete its mission. He admitted that Kiev had lost a number of aircraft and pilots, but also caused damage to Russia.
However, according to the Ukrainian general, Russia still has enough aircraft squadrons to conduct air combat operations. On the other hand, Moscow still possesses the capacity to produce new aircraft and missiles.
The fundamental difference between Russia’s air power and NATO’s is that the Western military alliance mainly uses long-range precision-guided weapons, while Moscow has traditionally relied on missiles or unguided bombs. However, Russia’s tactical air force has been gradually equipping itself with new long-range guided weapons over the past year.
Military analysts say Moscow relied on air power to stop Kiev's counterattack. In addition, anti-tank missiles, glide bombs from aircraft, combined with dense minefields and fortified Russian fortifications caused Ukraine great losses.
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