Today, Russia can use about 300 combat aircraft against Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Major General Vadym Skibitsky said.

"The enemy has a lot of [airplanes]. Let's just say that today Russia can and has about three hundred combat aircraft against us," Skibitsky said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He said Ukrainian forces had recently shot down an important target – an enemy A-50 early warning aircraft.

"Then the Russians moved the combat duty area back, but they lost reconnaissance range here. This is very positive for us. That is, if earlier the Russians could see from Azov to Kyiv, now they do not have enough reconnaissance equipment from Krasnodar territory to Kyiv. Since they are afraid to come closer," intelligence official said.

Skibitsky said the F-16 aircraft, which will soon be transferred to Ukraine, are one of the means that will make it possible to destroy enemy aircraft used to carry out bombing strikes. At the same time, he said "the Russians have set themselves the task of destroying both our aviation and infrastructure."

"For three days in a row, the enemy bombed Kanatove airfield (near the city of Kropyvnytsky), trying to hit with ballistic missiles. And this is exactly the enemy's approach to prevent us from deploying aircraft there. They are very afraid that powerful Western equipment will come to Ukraine. And we are already clearly confident and know that Western weapons are much better and have an advantage over Russian, over Soviet weapons. Any. These include accuracy, efficiency, and other parameters," the deputy head of the Main Intelligence Agency said.