Ukraine’s main Intelligence Directorate has revealed that Russia has amassed hundreds of planes and helicopters at air bases in western Russia.
“We have information about the presence of approximately 450 tactical aircraft (not strategic bombers) and about 300 helicopters, half of them attack helicopters,” said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“They are placed mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation at least 200 kilometers from the border, concentrated in different locations but outside our fire range,” Yusov said.
However, Yusov said Ukraine’s latest military security threat assessments do not indicate Russia plans to use these aircraft all at once in a mass aerial attack, but they could be used to support the Kremlin’s objectives in eastern Ukraine.
“These forces can primarily be used in the Donbas,” he said. “An aerial attack on Kyiv is unlikely.
“Russia’s offensive in the east is continuing, and this is the implementation of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to seize the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by the end of March.”
