Ukraine could lose control of its skies within weeks country’s air force warns 

Ukraine’s air force has warned the country could lose its air superiority by May amid concerns over its ability to mount an effective spring counter-offensive.

Russia has so far struggled to gain the upper hand in the skies, with Ukraine’s anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets keeping Russian warplanes at bay since the initial invasion.

It comes after the leak of classified Pentagon documents last week, a devastating development that showed Ukraine could run out of S-300 AA missiles by May 2.

The report also revealed that US planners doubt Ukraine’s ability to launch a counterattack this spring, hit hard by “deficiencies in force generation and support.”

Air Force spokesman Colonel Yuri Ihnat warned Russia could push through within weeks if Ukraine’s air defenses don’t hold up. The times reported.

A Ukrainian Army High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) fires close to the frontline in the northern Kherson region, Ukraine, November 5, 2022

He said: “If we lose the battle for our airspace, the consequences will be critical. The Russians will destroy every city, just like in Syria.

‘Our nuclear power plants will also be vulnerable. And we will fight to protect our troops on the front line.”

Currently, Buk and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles make up about 90 percent of Ukrainian air defense.

The Soviet-era technology has been supplemented by Western-supplied HIMARS systems, a multiple missile launch system developed for the US military in the 1990s.

Ihnat said the difficulty was in replenishing the weapons, which are produced only by Russia. He said Slovakia had been able to deliver so far.

While Russian fighter jets have remained highly effective against Ukrainian aircraft near the front lines, most of the VKS attacks took place early in the invasion, while Ukrainian air defenses were suppressed on the ground.

As of March 2022, the VKS has been unable to operate effectively in Ukrainian airspace as air defenses are wide and dispersed.

Russia has since been confined to a barrage of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, which are costly and failed to produce a decisive effect by the end of 2023.

The ability to station and resupply Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles has been documented as one of Ukraine’s most immediate priorities for averting Russian aggression.

After months of deadlock, the end of winter was expected to bring a new Russian offensive, but experts say the attack’jammed‘.

Analysts then expected Ukraine to launch a decisive counter-attack after being mired in a war of attrition around Bakhmut for eight months.

Analysis as of this week shows that Ukraine and Russia occupy positions in the east and south

Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery at the Marinka-Pisky frontline as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on April 16, 2023

Residents collect metal from a crashed fighter jet in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, April 8, 2023

Ukraine is also seeking to sever Russia’s land link with the Crimean peninsula, which it has held since 2014, while exploiting weaknesses to reclaim disputed areas in the east.

However, leaked documents show that there are material obstacles to meeting these targets.

Top secret US warning documents leaked on social media and picked up last week warned of Ukraine’s difficulty in “raising up forces” amid a shortage of newly trained troops and ammunition.

Despite Western air defense facilities, documents state that Ukraine is “unable to match the Russian volume of fire.”

The US was the largest donor to the Ukrainian war effort, followed by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Congress has approved more than $113 billion in aid and military assistance to support Ukraine and its allies since the war began in February last year.

But the US is more and more divided on whether or not to continue sending money directly to Ukraine to support the war effort.

This proves to be a problem for Biden, with Trump and probably presidential candidate Ron DeSantis less in favor of sending aid – which could completely disrupt the war effort.