Russia has ramped up attacks on airbases used by Kiev to launch long-range missile attacks, forcing Ukrainian personnel and aircraft to constantly be on the move to avoid being struck, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing sources.
Ukrainian officials told the paper that Kiev and its backers believe that Moscow’s recent attacks on airbases and pilot training facilities in western Ukraine are aimed at decimating its fleet of bombers used to fire British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles.
Ukraine is “racing to move around crucial weaponry and its skilled personnel” across dozens of airbases and commercial airports, the report said.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command spokesman, Yury Ignat, acknowledged the issue, claiming to the FT that Moscow was trying to undermine the country’s air power because “our pilots are bothering them… [and] causing a lot of trouble.”
Meanwhile, Yury Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, called on the West to provide Kiev with more air defense systems as well as to speed up pilot training and deliveries of F-16 fighter jets. Ukrainian officials have been asking for US-made advanced jets for months, but do not expect them to arrive until 2024.
In May, the UK supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles with a range of about 250km. France followed suit by sending Scalp missiles capable of reaching targets at the same distance. After receiving the deliveries, Kiev used Storm Shadow missiles to attack civilian facilities and infrastructure in the Russian city of Lugansk and on the Crimean Peninsula.
Reports of intensified attacks on Ukrainian facilities storing long-range assets come after the Russian Defense Ministry said last week that it had conducted high-precision strikes on a military airbase in Ivano-Frankovsk Region in the western part of Ukraine, successfully hitting all the designated targets.
Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against supplying Ukraine with weapons, arguing that this will only prolong the conflict. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has cautioned that the Russian military would take adequate countermeasures.