Air raid sirens in Ukraine have recently become longer. They can be heard for up to five hours. The fact is that the Russian army is practicing refueling aircraft in the air, explained Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat. Thus, the time spent by the enemy MiG in the air is doubled.

What Russia is up to and whether it is possible not to announce an alarm when there is no threat of missile launches on Ukrainian cities, military expert Oleg Zhdanov said in a comment to the TSN.ua website.

How MiGs are refueled in the air

According to Oleh Zhdanov, air-to-air refueling is a common process to reduce the time of combat use of aircraft. It was worked out back in the 70s, during the Cold War.

"Without returning to the airfield, the aircraft can go to the refueling area. There is a flying tanker there, to which he connects and pumps himself fuel. And again, as soon as he took off, he performed a combat mission. This is standard practice in terms of the use of short-range aircraft. We mean fighter aircraft and front-line bombers, which have a rather short range of action," Oleh Zhdanov said.

What is Russia up to?

The Russians are increasing the time the fighter is in the air to terrorize Ukrainians, says a military expert. According to him, last year the enemy did not have such a need, because they had a sufficient supply of missiles to carry out attacks on Ukrainian cities.

"They had enough time and enough missiles. Now they understand that there are problems with missiles, they are accumulating them. But so far there are a number of restrictions, starting with the flight hours for the aircraft - they also need repair and maintenance. They did not count on a long-term war. Therefore, the resource of aircraft is also very limited. And they decided, why not make such a long stay of the plane in the air, especially since it is safe," Oleh Zhdanov said.

He explained that the plane was in the airspace of the Russian Federation and did not cross the border.

What are the dangers of such drills?

Oleh Zhdanov says that the range of missile launches is about a thousand kilometers. An enemy aircraft can approach the Ukrainian border and launch at any time while it is in the airspace.

"Our economy is paralyzed, transport is becoming, shops, educational institutions, enterprises and others are suspending. We sit in shelters waiting for it to fly away. This is terror," Oleh Zhdanov said.

Is it possible not to announce an alarm?

According to Oleg Zhdanov, in order to determine whether an enemy aircraft poses a threat, you need to have "your" person at the Russian airfield. Otherwise, it is impossible to do this, for example, with the help of Air Defense.

"You need to have your own person at the airfield who will tell you for sure whether there is an aerodynamic model hanging there, or a real combat missile hanging there. We can't define it. This can only be determined by the people who loaded this missile. Unfortunately, we do not have such an opportunity. It can lie down on a combat course, reach the drop line and drop this missile at any time," Oleh Zhdanov said.

Recall that the economist proposes to announce a warning alarm during the take-off of MiGs and not to stop the work of business. First of all, due to the long-term alarm, retail outlets in catering establishments, as well as public transport, suffer losses.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said that bans may be eased in Ukraine. We are talking about giving alarms the status of "orange", "yellow", "red".