Russia now launches air strikes mainly on JFO zone, Mariupol – Arestovych
The Russian Federation has currently concentrated the use of air strikes mainly on the zone of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas and on Mariupol, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the President's Office head, said.
"As you can see, for the third day already, the enemy has been trying not to use its aircraft in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, or is using it to a limited extent ... The only areas where Russia uses air strikes are the JFO zone and Mariupol. But we are implementing measures that should alleviate the situation in terms of air influence," Arestovych said at a briefing at the President's Office on Tuesday.
He attributed Russia's limited use of airstrikes in central, northern and southern parts of Ukraine to the inability of Russian aviation to conduct complex air operations.
"In general, the enemy has gathered 500 of their combat aircraft around us, but Russian aviation is not capable of conducting complex air operations. This requires many years of training and money, which they do not have ... Air strikes were carried out by single aircraft, two at a time and up to a maximum of six. So, our Armed Forces have already shot down 83 aircraft of the Russian Federation. This means that they already used 120-140 aircraft out of 500. Half of them are gone," the adviser to the President's Office head said.
As Arestovych noted, "you need to understand that now the enemy will shift its main efforts towards missile strikes with Iskander-type ballistic missiles or cruise missiles from Russian aircraft."