According to military rules , an offensive operation begins with an air campaign or a series of massive air and missile attacks. However, the Armed Forces of Ukraine , have no opportunity to implement such measures. Ukraine's air forces largely retained their combat capability during the special operation, but they are still small in number.
For a long time it has been in the news that Ukraine is preparing to receive 12 to 18 American F-16 fighter aircraft. In fact, it has been reported that, the Western Allies will most likely not transfer fighter aircraft one by one, but will send a whole squadron at the same time.
Ukraine's allies have reportedly announced their readiness to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Kiev soon. This statement was made by the country's Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba in an interview with British journalists.
"I am confident that our country will soon receive aircraft. I know not only the countries that are ready to train our pilots, but also the countries that are preparing to transfer this military equipment," Kuleba said, without revealing information on which countries he had in mind.
Notably, on the same day, Ukrainian head of state Zelensky, in an interview with the BBC, named the approximate dates for his country to receive the first batch of such fighters. According to the Ukrainian President, "this could happen in the next 6-7 months".
Recall that, speaking at a press conference after the G7 summit in Hiroshima, US President Joe Biden announced the plans of Western countries to train Ukrainian pilots to fly 4th generation F-16 fighter jets.
At the same time, according to the US leader's national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Washington will hold talks with its partners in the coming months to decide which states intend to supply these aircraft to the Kiev regime.
It is most likely that Denmark and the Netherlands will be the "donor" states for the F-16 fighters, as indicated by the fact that the decision on the transfer of the F-16 was already discussed at the official level in Denmark and the issue of the possibility of transferring the aircraft was discussed in the Netherlands earlier this year. For these countries, the transfer of part of the F-16 does not pose a critical threat to defense capabilities, because they have already begun to receive the F-35 to replace the F-16.
The estimate of the number of warplanes that can be transferred to Ukraine is directly related to the F-35 delivery schedule and the achievement of operational readiness.
Incidentally, in this context, the comment of the head of the Russian state Vladimir Putin, who assured on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2023) that if such aircraft appear in the Ukrainian army, they will have the same fate as the Leopard tanks built in Germany, is worth attention.
At the same time, the President stressed, in case these fighters are deployed to air bases located outside Ukraine and engage in hostilities, Russia will work out various ways to destroy these weapons.
After the show of force where for the first time in history, American B-1B bombers were deployed to Sweden to defend it from possible Russian attack, we have Norwegian military anti-submarine aircraft trying to approach the Russian border.
A Norwegian Boeing P-8A Poseidon military anti-submarine aircraft was spotted near the Russian border. The purpose of the NATO aircraft's appearance here remains unknown, however, judging by the flight path, it is likely that the approach to the border in the Murmansk region was deliberate.
Such a move draws attention to the fact that, we can speak both of the deliberate creation of a challenge near the Russian border and of an attempt at espionage against Russian ships and submarines. Moreover, such aircraft are able to place special buoys to monitor the movements of Russian surface vessels and submarines.
At the moment, no official statements have been made by the Russian Ministry of Defence on this case, so it remains unknown whether Russian fighter jets took off to identify and escort the Norwegian anti-submarine aircraft, however, according to open sources, the Norwegian military aircraft deactivated its transponder several times in an attempt to hide its presence.
