"No right to take risks": Air Force says air raid alert must be declared every time Russian MiGs take off

23.11.2023 04:20

Ukrinform

The scheme for notifying the population about the missile threat will not be amended, since Russian MiG-31 fighter jets sometime takes off with a Kinzhal missile on board but very often no verified intelligence is available as to whether the warplane carries a payload.

That’s according to Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for the Air Force Command, who spoke with Ukrainian Radio, Ukrinform reports.

According to Ihnat, the Air Force has not yet received instructions on how to otherwise notify citizens in the event of a MiG-31 takeoff. What will remain unchanged is that the Air Force will in any case continue to declare the air raid alert in relation to UAV and missile threats, as well as tactical aircraft or MLRS activity.

"For us, the public notification scheme will not change. We are trying to warn people as soon as possible via our official Telegram channel. As for what the level of threat will be announced, in other words, what color the map will be, will be decided at the highest level," he said.

Ihnat is convinced that Russian MiGs will keep performing their flights anyway. "Sometimes we have intel that the MiG took off carrying a missile, sometimes – without one, and sometimes there is no such intelligence at all. We have no right to take risks here," the spokesman added.

As reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed the Ministry of Defense to find a solution to long-lasting air raid alerts due to MiG-31 flights. He noted that Ukraine’s current level of air defense "allows us to somewhat modernize the response without unnecessarily shutting the country down."

Later, Zelensky explained his move by the fact that the Russians deliberately have their MiG-31s fly for several hours in order to harm Ukraine’s economy during this period and sow panic. According to the president, Ukraine’s military and law enforcement need to jointly find a technological solution that would allow people to distinguish the maximum threat from Russian provocations.

For his part, Ihnat reported that the optimal solution to long-lasting air raid alerts due to MiG-31 flights is being worked out by the relevant agencies, adding that this is no easy task.