Ukraine’s war in the air is about to get a lot worse. This is the grim takeaway from Western intelligence this week. Information being circulated, reports claim, show Russian fighter jets and helicopters being assembled to support an imminent Kremlin offensive. Ukrainian officials believe that not only is Vladimir Putin planning a new assault to mark the one-year anniversary of the war but that he is to throw his air force behind the attack — something he has so far only done sparingly.
This means Russia now can attempt to clear the skies over its new attack lines, allowing its cruise missiles to freely strike, using jets to knock out Ukrainian air defences and electronic warfare, while helicopters support its tank and infantry columns. Worse still for Ukraine, sources in its intelligence community point to the fact that this offensive build-up is happening inside Russia’s Kursk and Voronezh regions. “Not only can we not do the kind of combined air and land assaults ourselves,” said one Ukrainian source, “but it is very hard for us, with what we have, to reach the build-up in Russia and the limitations on what Western arms can be used for.”
