A Russian missile attack destroyed five warplanes at a Ukrainian airbase primed to receive F-16 fighter jets from Kyiv’s Nato allies.
The Kremlin claimed the missile strike on Monday on the Myrhorod airbase destroyed five Su-27 fighter jets and damaged two more.
It published aerial footage after the alleged attack that showed damaged fighter jets parked outside hangars and tarmac scarred with black scorch marks.
Ukraine’s air force admitted that Russian missiles had hit the airbase but played down the damage.
“There are certain losses, but not at all what the enemy attributes to himself,” said Yuri Ignat, a Ukrainian air force spokesman.
The missile strike is a blow to Ukraine’s air force which analysts have said is heavily outnumbered by the Kremlin’s more technologically advanced fleet of warplanes.
It is also a major embarrassment to Ukraine’s top military commanders who are on the brink of finally receiving F-16 fighter jets. On Tuesday, the Netherlands approved an export licence for all its 42 F-16s to be sent to Ukraine.
On Telegram, Russian military bloggers praised the attack on the Myrhorod airbase in central Ukraine next to the town of Poltava and said that it showed that F-16 fighter jets could also be destroyed.
“This is the most effective strike on an airfield from our side,” said Fighterbomber. “It’s great that a separate team is now effectively working on destroying airfields. This is not the first airfield they have targeted and I hope not the last.”
Ukrainian war commentators were, in contrast, incensed with the Russian missile strike and blamed sloppy Ukrainian commanders.
“There must be responsibility for chronically allowing such things to happen to Ukraine’s air force. Systemic negligence may get us all six feet under in this war,” said Illia Ponomarenko, the former military correspondent for the Kyiv Independent newspaper.
One of the reasons that the US initially dragged its feet over allowing Nato allies to give F-16s to Ukraine was because Ukrainian airfields were ill-equipped to protect the fighter jets from Russian attacks. Airbases hosting F-16s must also be specially prepared because the fighter jets need clean areas and long runways.
Ukraine has not said which airbases will host F16s but analysts have previously highlighted Myrhorod. It has been modernised and previously hosted visiting US air force F16s before Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Justin Bronk, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, said that all of Ukraine’s airbases were vulnerable to Russian missile attacks.
“Any ground-based air defence coverage can be saturated if the Russians care enough to fire enough missiles at one target,” he said.
Nato members had considered allowing Ukraine to fly F-16 combat sorties from its airbases in Central Europe but this was ruled out because it could spread the war. They will still store reserve Ukrainian air force F-16 warplanes.
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