ajor Vadym Voroshylov has said that every day it is becoming harder to keep the Russians at bay with outdated Soviet aircraft as he pleaded for the West to send F-16s.
Major Voroshylov warned: “The Russians change tactics all the time, so the war isn’t stable. They make traps. They will send up a Russian jet alone, tricking the Ukrainian pilot into thinking there is only one jet. Then, two or three more will appear either side of it, effectively swarming the Ukrainian aircraft.”
As Ukrainian pilots continue to fly Soviet-era MiG-29s, he stressed they can do no more than “hold the battlefield”.
Wiping out the Russians, who fly the supersonic Sukhoi Su-35s modern air superiority fighter jets and Su-34 bombers, has proved difficult.
“Right now, we can only hold the enemy but with F-16s we could control the airfield, as well as the seas and the ground to protect infantry,” he said. “We need more modern aircraft to be better than the enemy.”
Ukraine initially sought to obtain the US-made F-16s. However, Joe Biden, the US president, recently said he did not want to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters for now, which prompted Volodymyr Zelensky to urge Rishi Sunak to give Ukraine RAF Typhoons.
In February, the UK prime minister instructed his defence officials to investigate which of Britain’s planes could be given to Ukraine, although he cautioned that it could take three years to train a pilot.
This time frame is something Major Voroshylov and his colleague Colonel Volodymyr Lohachov, chief of the aviation department of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, dispute.
“Less than six months are required to train on such a jet,” Colonel Lohachov said.
“As long as we continue to wait we will lose more pilots. We had a list of the most advanced pilots who could be trained on F-16s and, unfortunately, some of them have already been killed in action.”
In recent weeks, Eastern European Nato member states have begun transferring old Soviet fighter jets for the first time, with a promise from the West that newer models will be provided to backfill.
Slovenia and Poland have both sent MiGs from their ageing stock, but some are only useful for spare parts.
Despite a lack of promises over more advanced western fighter jets, the Ukrainian pilots remain optimistic.
Most advanced pilots are already undergoing intensive English lessons so that they can understand their instructors if the time ever comes to be trained on western jets.
This is despite hints from London that Ukraine would not receive any British fighter jets until after the war.
This is not something Colonel Lohachov wants to entertain. “To be effective in the air, jets should have modern radars and air-to-air missiles,” he explained. “The radars on Russian jets are about four times better than what we have.
“As well, the Russian missiles are significantly more capable than our Soviet ones. It is getting more dangerous. Sometimes we can’t even see that the Russians have launched missiles, which is very dangerous for pilots.”
He explained that Russia has the capability to launch an attack from 200km away, whereas Ukraine has to be much closer to the enemy in order to shoot, which is far more dangerous.
The pilots’ message is stark: “Getting F-16s would help us survive and keep more people alive.”
Aged 29, Major Voroshylov has become the most famous fighter jet pilot in Ukraine. In part, it is due to his huge following on social media but also after he was celebrated by Mr Zelensky following an incident in which he was forced to eject from his jet after the windshield was destroyed as he tried to get a better radar look at Russian drones.
For Major Voroshylov, it is a prime example of why Ukrainians need better aircraft.
“If we want to strike Russian jets we have to get much closer to the front line and fly at a low distance, which is very dangerous,” he said.
