The Ukrainian military announced on Sunday that it had received a “large batch” of air-to-air missiles from its “Western partners” as the conflict with Russia continues.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on Facebook the newly supplied missiles “are already under the wings” of the country's fighter jets.
The news comes even as Ukraine claimed on Sunday it had shot down 46 Russian aircraft and 26 helicopters, since the conflict began. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar had announced Russia had lost about 4,300 personnel in its invasion, which commenced early on February 24. Ukraine’s ministry of defence had retweeted a claim that the country’s fighter jets had shot down 10 Russian aircraft.
Meanwhile on Sunday, the foreign policy chief of the European Union Josep Borrell announced members of the bloc would provide fighter jets to Ukraine. “We're going to provide even fighting jets. We're not talking about just ammunition. We are providing more important arms to go to a war,” Borrell told a press conference.
Borrell said Ukraine had informed the EU “they need the kind of fighting jets that the Ukrainian army is able to operate... some member states have these kinds of planes.”
The Wall Street Journal reported “A person familiar with the talks [for fighter jets] later said that discussions are still ongoing. The person said any planes would be supplied directly by EU member states and not funded through an arrangement announced earlier for the EU to finance weapons deliveries to Ukraine.”
What jets, weapons and from where?
Ukraine uses the MiG-29 and Su-27 as its primary air defence fighters, while it also operates the Su-25 ground-attack jets. Modifying these aircraft to fire air-to-air missiles of non-Soviet origin, such as weapons from the US and France, would be time consuming and eat up funds.
Members of the erstwhile Warsaw Pact such as Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia remain operators of the Soviet-era MiG-29s, though these are being replaced by US-supplied jets such as the F-16 and F-35. Hungary is also believed to have a small number of MiG-29s in storage.
Bulgaria still flies the Su-25. The MiG-29s of these EU member states carry weapons such as the R-73 short-range air-to-air missile and R-27 medium-range air-to-air missiles, which are operated by Ukraine.
Social media handles have speculated Poland had supplied missiles for Ukraine's fighters. As evidence, they cited the presence of three Ukrainian Il-76 transport jets in Poland on the evening of February 24.
The restocking of Ukraine's fighter fleet and missile arsenal is expected to complicate Russian efforts to gain air superiority over the skies to help accelerate the capture of various cities, most importantly Kyiv.