Russian warplanes in the event of a massive air attack on Ukraine will be vulnerable to the air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since the occupiers have few long-range air-to-surface missiles left.

Military and political commentator

Oleksandr Kovalenko

told about this in an exclusive interview with TSN.ua.

"The Russian occupiers have aviation. They suffered serious losses in 2022, but they still have potential, they can use it. There have always been a lot of fighter jets, attack bombers, attack helicopters, etc. near the border with Ukraine," he said.

The expert noted that the occupiers began to use Kh-59 missiles artificially, not en masse, during missile strikes on Ukraine from airplanes.

"They don't have enough.

They have big problems today with such long-range air-to-surface weapons. The

Kh-59 is the main "working" missile for striking the surface by Russian aircraft. In order to ensure a large air strike on the territory of Ukraine for due to the components that are near our borders,

they need hundreds of these missiles. And they are not there

," Kovalenko explained.

Instead, according to him, the Russians will use a huge number of aerial bombs - OFAB-250, OFAB-500 and others.

"

But these are air bombs to carry out carpet bombing of cities and positions. You need to enter these positions, be above this object. This means that you are in the radius of damage of air defense. The same situation is

with short-range missiles. They can to use X-25 missiles with a short range, up to 10 km. And in fact, you again find yourself in the area of ​​air defense, or MANPADS calculations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the expert noted.

We will remind you that a number of Western media and experts reported that the Russian Federation is stockpiling aircraft and rotorcraft near the Russian-Ukrainian border and is preparing an air attack. 

According to 

British intelligence

estimates, Russia's aerospace forces likely maintained a virtually intact fleet of approximately 1,500 manned combat aircraft throughout Russia, despite the loss of more than 130 units since the invasion began.

However, intelligence considers an air attack by the Russian Federation unlikely.

People's deputy and member of the parliamentary committee on national security 

Fedir Venislavsky 

 believes that the invaders will try to launch airstrikes against Ukrainian air defense systems and field warehouses.

Military expert 

Oleg Zhdanov 

said that Russia may change tactics in the war in the coming weeks and try to stage an air attack on Ukraine.

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