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UK says that Russia may have lost four combat jets in Ukraine in last 10 days
The British military said on Monday (Sep 19), Russia has highly likely lost at least four combat jets in Ukraine within the last 10 days, taking its attrition to about 55 since the beginning of its invasion.
The Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence on Twitter, there is a realistic possibility that the uptick in losses was partially a result of the Russian Air Force accepting greater risk in a move to provide close air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances.
Russian pilots' situational awareness is often poor, it said. "There is a realistic possibility that some aircraft have strayed over enemy territory and into denser air defence zones as the front lines have moved rapidly."
President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged in his daily video to recapture all Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine.
"Perhaps it seems to someone that after a series of victories we have a certain lull," he said, adding that this was in fact "preparation" for the recapture of the key cities of Mariupol, Melitopol and Kherson, the next stage of the counteroffensive.
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"Because Ukraine must be free - the whole of it," the Ukrainian army would not only seek to recapture the territory it controlled before the Russian invasion began, but also territory in the Donbass and Crimea that has been in the hands of Moscow-backed separatists since 2014, Zelensky said.
Russia seized large areas of southern and eastern Ukraine after invading the country in February and currently still occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
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