The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has lasted for 16 days, and the struggle for air supremacy between the two sides seems to have come to an end, and the Ukrainian Air Force has been almost completely destroyed by the Russian Air force. According to the latest war report of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian army has destroyed 90% of Ukraine's air defense systems and 90% of its military airfields, and also destroyed 146 fighters and helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force, which accounted for 60% of the total number of Ukrainian Air Force aircraft, and some Ukrainian fighters flew to Romania and no longer participated in any combat. Without air supremacy, Ukraine would undoubtedly lose in this conflict, so the top priority of the Ukrainian armed forces is to quickly rebuild the air force.
According to the US Department of Defense, the Russian Air and Space Force currently flies 20 times as many fighters in the direction of Ukraine every day as the Ukrainian Air Force, with an average of about 200 sorties per day, while the Ukrainian Air Force only has 5-10 fighter sorties per day, and the number of combat aircraft is only 56. Ukrainian air defense forces began to be transferred to the air force in 2015, and in this conflict, Ukrainian air defense forces also suffered heavy losses, and the main air defense weapons were basically destroyed or suppressed by the Russian army. The establishment of an effective regional air defense system mainly relies on two weapons, namely fighters and long-range air defense missiles, the current Ukrainian Air Force is very scarce in both fighter jets and large air defense missiles, the Army has to rely on its own equipped man-portable air defense missiles to resist attacks from the air, which can not fundamentally change the air defense disadvantages of the Ukrainian army.
Considering that high-precision weapons such as fighter jets and large anti-aircraft missiles require a long training time, under the current urgent situation, it is difficult for Western-made weapons and equipment to quickly adapt to the Ukrainian Air Force, and the fastest way is to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with Russian-made weapons and equipment that it is familiar with, and some Central European NATO countries still have a certain number of Russian-made weapons and equipment in service. For example, the Polish Air Force was also equipped with a number of MiG-29 fighter jets that could be quickly delivered to the Ukrainian Air Force to compensate for the loss of its fighters, but Poland refused to hand them over directly to Ukraine for fear of triggering a direct conflict with Russia. Poland proposed that Poland transport the MiG-29 fighter jets to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and the United States and NATO would decide whether to hand them over to Ukraine, but both the United States and NATO rejected Poland's proposal for fear of direct involvement in the war.
Given the enormous political and military risks, no country is willing to directly supply Ukraine with such a powerful combat weapon as a fighter jet, and the fighter support that Ukraine hopes to receive may not end up with any results. However, from a military point of view, even if the Ukrainian Air Force is supported by other fighter jets, it is difficult to effectively use these fighters. The reason is simple, the Ukrainian Air Force has lost most of its airfields, and also lacks a relatively safe depth of rear area, the Russian S-400, S-300 long-range air defense missiles deployed in Belarus and Russia have almost included most of Ukraine's airspace into its defense range, Ukrainian fighters not only face the threat of Russian fighters, but also a large number of Russian ground air defense systems with complete systems. Unless neighboring countries are willing to borrow military airfields for the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian side has clearly warned that any action to provide military support to Ukraine will mean an act of war against Russia, and no country is willing to directly confront Russia, including the United States.
The only feasible option is to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with a large Russian-made air defense missile system similar to the S-300 to help Ukraine establish an effective ground air defense system in the western region to defend against large-scale Russian missile strikes. Although the West has more powerful Patriot air defense systems, the Ukrainian Air Force needs at least several months of training time to use these systems, and it requires Western countries to send troops into Ukraine to help operate these air defense systems, which the Western countries are not willing to do. Therefore, at present, the United States and NATO are actively negotiating the feasibility of providing S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine, and Bulgaria and Slovakia both have S-300 air defense systems, which can quickly provide the Ukrainian Air Force with ready-made combat-capable S-300 air defense systems to make up for the previous war losses.
The S-300 is a Soviet-made long-range surface-to-air air defense missile designed in the 1970s and has been continuously upgraded to produce a series of models, the newer S-300 can defend against fighters and drones, as well as intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, with modern air defense capabilities. The Russian Air and Space Force is still equipped with a large number of S-300 series of anti-aircraft missile systems, which shows that the effectiveness of the S-300 air defense system is still there. The Ukrainian Air Force is heavily equipped with the S-300PS series of anti-aircraft missile systems, the S-300PS air defense system is the cornerstone of the Ukrainian homeland air defense system, in this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, a large number of Ukrainian S-300PS were destroyed by the Russian army. According to data released by the Russian army, the Russian army has destroyed nearly 100 sets of S-300 air defense systems of the Ukrainian Air Force. This shows that the Ukrainian Air Force has serious problems in the deployment and tactical use of air defense systems, and is not entirely due to weaponry, but in any case, the Ukrainian Air Force must first get more S-300s to make up for its war losses.
Since the Ukrainian Air Force lost its air defense cover capability, which greatly limited the combat operations of the Ukrainian Army, any large-scale maneuver is likely to be accurately attacked by the long-range firepower of the Russian Army, and the Ukrainian Army can only use small light infantry units to carry out sneak attacks and other tactics against the Russian Army, which is difficult to achieve campaign or even strategic results. In general, the Ukrainian army is still in a full-fledged defensive posture, completely suppressed by the Russian army on the entire front, which is a fact that the Ukrainian army has to admit. If the Ukrainian army wants to turn the situation around on the battlefield, the first premise is to strengthen air defense capabilities and rebuild the Ukrainian Air Force, although the S-300 is not the best choice, but it is the only option that the Ukrainian Air Force can achieve at present! Relying solely on man-portable air defense missiles cannot save the ukrainian army's air defense disadvantage!