The Armed Forces of Ukraine warned of the threat from Russian aviation
Ukraine needs assets that can withstand enemy aircraft.
At least 12 Tu-95MS strategic bombers are on alert at airfields in the Russian Federation. An enemy air grouping is also at its deployment sites. Yuriy Ignat, the speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, said this on the air of the national telethon.
Long-range and strategic aviation, it is dispersed at different airfields, these are Tu-95 aircraft, they can be ready to use missiles," Ignat said.
He also said that the Russians have started manufacturing a new type of heavy 1.5-tonne aerial bombs, which the Ukrainian Defence Forces are not yet able to shoot down.
It is highly probable that they will be equipped with wings and GPS navigation, as is now the case with the 500-kilogram bombs. And 1.5 ton bombs are already three times as powerful. Once again, I stress that you need means that can withstand - these are Patriot, Samp-t systems from the ground. And best of all, modern F-16s or other Generation 4+ aircraft capable of resisting Russian aviation on long-range approaches," he said.
Ignat stressed that Ukraine does not yet have the means to counter such a threat.
The enemy is using these bombs remotely. So far, with impunity. One has to understand that such bombs strike from a distance of 50 plus kilometres and beyond the line of battle or the state border. That is why there is nothing to reach them yet, exactly the planes that launch them," the speaker explained.