Russia may increase the number of aviation to 8 divisions. This could happen by the end of 2023. This was stated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi in an article for The Economist.
He noted that since the beginning of the large-scale war, Russia has lost a number of aircraft that is roughly equal to the number of aircraft of one air force, and helicopters - about 13 regiments (brigades) of army aviation. At the same time, the losses of enemy air defense systems exceed 550 units.
"Despite such losses, the enemy continues to maintain a significant air superiority, which complicates the advance of our troops and is one of the key factors that transforms the nature of hostilities into a positional form," Zaluzhnyi noted.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief believes that Russia may increase the number of aircraft. But, in his opinion, even despite the overwhelming number of airplanes and helicopters, the Russians do not feel safe in the sky of Ukraine.
"According to various estimates, by the end of 2023, the enemy may increase the number of aviation up to 8 mixed aviation divisions, so this circumstance should be given special attention. However, despite the enemy's significant quantitative and qualitative superiority in aviation and air defense, it cannot convert it into complete air dominance due to the successful work of our units of direct air defense coverage of troops, which are constantly increasing the number of defeated air attack vehicles," he explained.
Zaluzhnyi added that the Russians are now using drones, which have taken over a significant part of aviation tasks, including reconnaissance and air strikes.
