Vladimir Putin’s war gains have been limited as his military forces fail to gain air superiority over Ukraine.
Despite several attempts to ground Ukraine’s airforce by carrying out heavy artillery strikes on their airfields, Putin has so far been unsuccessful.
Today, Former Director Counter Terrorism and UK Operations, Brigadier Paul Gibson told GB News Ukraine’s air defence tactics have been impressive.
He said: “The Ukrainians are doing remarkably well shooting down Russian helicopters and Russian fast jets – they’ve kept some of their air defence and that’s driving Russian tactics.
“They [Russia] were expecting to have complete air dominance by now and they haven't got it."
Russian Su-30SM jet fighter
RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY
Gaining air power in the initial stages of a war is considered crucial as it allows greater bombing efforts, but in the case of Russia-Ukraine, either side are yet to establish airspace supremacy.
Referring to the success of Ukrainian ground troops in shooting down Russian aircrafts, the UK’s Ministry of Defence revealed in an update on Twitter: “Russia has failed to gain control of the airspace over Ukraine prompting a shift to night operations in an attempt to reduce their losses.”
Russia has approximately 300 military aircraft stations around the borders of Ukraine but has made limited use of them.
“One reason may be that [Russia] is not confident they destroyed Ukraine’s air defences and are not confident they can send fighters overhead without losing them,” explains Rob Lee, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
As Putin’s military continue to aggressively advance, some were imploring the West to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
It was made apparent this week that such a measure would not be considered by NATO over fears the move would drag the West into war with Russia.
Speaking further on GB News’ Breakfast show, Mr Gibson agreed with the consensus, but argued Boris Johnson should have used the tactic as a preventative measure.
He said: “It should not have bee taken off the table at the beginning.
“If it had been part of our deterrent strategy and we had said clearly: Mr Putin, you’ve got 190,000 troops around the border, if you come into Ukraine we would impose a no-fly zone.
“If we had said that at the front things might be quite different…but we cant do that now.”