Ukraine needs F-16s due to Russia's aerial superiority - Air Force spox

That’s according to Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"Russia outnumbers us by magnitudes, by five to six times. This is the grouping that today is located at those 40 airfields around Ukraine and in occupied Crimea alone. In addition, technologically, they are several times better. They carried out deep modernization of the Su-27 aircraft, today it is the Su-30, and there is also a Su-35 variant, as well as a Su-34 fighter-bomber, and what these aircraft fire off is a new threat," Ihnat said, adding that the Russian Federation launches about 10 guided aerial bombs over Ukraine almost every day, without entering the zone protected by Ukraine’s air defenses.

The spokesman noted that MiG-29s, which Ukraine receives from Slovakia and Poland, improve the capabilities of the Air Force but they are morally outdated, being weaker in terms of technology. Ukraine desperately needs F-16s, which have undergone several stages of modernization, spokesman emphasized.

"The F-16, which is the same age as the MiG-29, has undergone several stages of deep modernization. This includes the replacement of its main equipment: it is an on-board radar that can see far and a wide range of weapons – cruise missiles, guided air missiles capable of hitting air, ground, and water surface targets – everything is there in the F-16 aircraft. That is why we need such a multi-purpose warplane. The MiG-29, which is handed over to us by our partners, doesn’t have this. There, a small modernization of the communication system, navigation system, friend-or-foe system, and that’s pretty much it. But we do understand that this is the first step, and we thank our partners for such support," spokesman emphasized.

Commenting on the issue of training for Ukrainian pilots, he said that some pilots had already completed training on F-16s, but the preparation of technical documentation and engineers who would service the F-16 is no less important. The adaptation of the infrastructure of Ukrainian airfields is also critical, Ihnat said.

As reported, Poland and Slovakia plan to transfer to Ukraine 33 MiG-29 aircraft: 20 of them are to be received by Kyiv from Warsaw and 13 – from Bratislava. According to tentative reports, Poland and Slovakia have already given Ukraine four MiG-29s.