"Not everyone in the US believed in the success of Ukrainian resistance": Ignati about the first days of the Great War

About how this war began, about the battle for the Ukrainian sky and heroes who sacrificed life for the freedom of Ukraine, about the "ghost of Kiev", as well as today's difficulties in the work of air defense, in an interview with focus with the speaker of the Air Force Yuri Ignaat . The worst day is the first day of a full -scale invasion.

Everyone realized that something was rising: either Russia would want to cut off the Donbas, or the land corridor of Crimea, or began aggression against all Ukraine. Unfortunately, they implemented the third option. From this day, the worst period began. Anxious days, weeks, rapid flow of information: Russian troops move to Ukraine, surround Kiev, come to other areas. Tens of kilometers stretched the columns of orcs - one column was 80 km and they moved from all directions.

The intelligence data spread very scary numbers. It seemed like an apocalypse. It was truly anxious. But at the same time, the decisions by our commander were made cold -blooded and the airs forces of Ukraine began to destroy the enemy - one of the first waves of positive moments. In the first days of the war, when the Air Force commander gave me information to make public that our anti -aircraft have destroyed 7 enemy aircraft a day, and the next day 8 aircraft and helicopters were already.

It is also inspired! We began to tell Ukrainians how difficult it is, but we still reflect the Russian attack and what powerful losses they carry. Then there were supporting footage as our pilots met the enemy with fire; Photo and video of the battle for Kiev-it all began to create a more or less positive atmosphere, give hope, support the morale. But the most interpreted moment: when a month and a half later, no enemy aircraft dared to fly into the territory controlled by Ukraine.

Yes, they flew over the occupied territories, knowing that there can be impunity there - raisins, Mariupol. We could not get them, it was really difficult to observe, but at the same time there was an inspiration - the occupier was expelled from the airspace above the territory, which is controlled by the Ukrainian forces of defense. At that point, it became clear that they could and should be destroyed. This is understood by our partners. They just watched before.

Not all in the United States believed in the Ukrainian resistance that Ukrainian troops would not resist, and some of the population would meet the invaders with flowers, not Molotov's "cocktails", and the authorities would agree to those realities that the Russians want to impose. But we demonstrated the will. And this is where the support of partners began. Now with their support, everyone is well aware - Ukraine wins and wins.

Since 2014, anti -aircraft missile troops have been trained at the Yagorlik landfill (Kherson region occupied). There, they trained to knock down the air goals, such as Tu-143 "flight"-these are old Soviet drones, in fact a copy of the caliber missiles by characteristics. De facto, these training is the only practice of our anti-aircraft prohibition in reflecting attacks by enemy rockets. So did our pilots - they practiced to knock them out of the air.

Plus, flight-tactical training took place in the Air Force. One of the educational tasks is to get out of the missile strike with landing at operational aerodromes-at different times of the day and in difficult weather conditions. In addition, pilots practiced planting a plane on the road. There are special areas of roads in Ukraine for planting planes, it is a normal practice for many countries of the world.

Such workouts helped our pilots most of the technique remove from under the impact in the early days of the war. Other air forces were trained - anti -aircraft missile and radio technical troops. Of course, the blow of the Russians was massive, and we lost some part of the equipment - the enemy tried to seize control of the sky, and if they succeeded, it would have led to the loss of the country. And this could not be allowed.

It is necessary to pay tribute to the military administration, in particular the Commander of the Air Force Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk. Then, in the new environment, the country's air defense was built, from what we had.

Given that some of the equipment was damaged and it took time to restore it, time to regroup, take spare positions, arrange duty on operational aerodromes and plus to organize all combat work, take off and attack the enemy, push it from Ukrainian borders - there was a very difficult time. One and a half months of such a struggle for the Ukrainian sky, for Kiev, Kharkiv, Sumy. Our defenders managed to keep the sky.

The "ghost of Kiev" is a collective image of Ukrainian pilots who bravely defended the sky. For example, pilots from Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk and Mirgorod participated in the capital. Now the Ghost of Kyiv owns the pilots of the 40th tactical aviation brigade, even patented this brand. I am glad to contribute to the appearance of this image, our pilots are undoubtedly young. The enemy prevailed and still prevails us by the amount of aviation equipment somewhere 5-6 times.

And considering technologies, we lose all parameters. But there is no other way out - we need to fight on what is! And our pilots did it, desperately and heroically . . . Here is a group of planes to attack the Kiev or Zhytomyr region, to meet them a couple of our Mig-29. Soviet MiG-29 "blind" in relation to modernized Russian aircraft. But they flew to complete the task.

At first there were 4 hostile points on the radars, as a result, there were as many as 12! The main task of our pilots is to counteract the enemy, to force maneuver, to push the occupiers into the area of ​​defeat of our air defense, and to destroy their own aviation missiles, if possible. The result of this battle is 3: 1 in our favor - from 12 aircraft 3 of the occupiers were knocked down.

Unfortunately, the military pilot Alexander Brinzhaya died in this battle, he was awarded the title - Hero of Ukraine, posthumously. We do not have enough air defense equipment. Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe, to close it completely because we have now is impossible. We received two Patriot divisions, two Iris-T divisions, as well as Nasams-but it is extremely small to effectively protect such territory as our country. In addition, there are air towns.

Gepard and Crotale - they have shown themselves. But Gepard is an anti -aircraft self -propelled installation with a small lesion radius. If the target is over 5 km, it will no longer be able to destroy it. Crotale is armed with anti -aircraft missiles, but also has a small lesion radius. The fact that we all have this is good, but this is not enough. In the future, there will be 4 main complexes in service of Ukraine: NASAMS, Iris-T, Patriot and SAMP/T.

But it takes a long time to re-arry and replace the outdated Soviet missile systems, such as "M-1", "M-1", "C-300". Here is another difficulty in the work of air defense - mainly we have in service with old systems and very little for this time means against ballistic missiles. Our Su-27 aircraft and MiG-29 development of 70-80 years. Their equipment - radars, and missiles, did not actually be modernized, and they remain old Soviet aircraft. Therefore, we need a modern F-16 aircraft.

Now our pilots do the impossible, destroying hostile goals with such outdated equipment. We are fighting against a new generation of an outdated weapon. Yes, we knock down the hostile rockets and drones of Kamikadze with anti-aircraft missiles, but the enemy lays the route in such a way as to avoid the area of ​​damage.

In order to intercept missiles and UAVs in any area of ​​the route and direction, modern fighter jets that will fly from operational airfields in different regions of the state will be needed, will intercepts and destroy goals. We need the F-16 and it will become part of the air defense of the state, will carry out a fighter cover.

The F-16 will help drive Russian aviation from our borders, it can make high-precision strikes for land purposes, counteract Russian ships, because it has in service with Harpun missiles. The deputy chairman of the Main Operational Administration of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexei Gromov has already informed that Russia produces about 100 missiles a month. It is about "Iskander-M", "Iskander-K", "Dagger", "Calibers" and "X-101".

According to our data, Russians attack Ukraine about the same amount that is produced per month. Due to the deficit, they accelerated production and sometimes do not even have time to mark their missiles properly. On one of them, for example, the marking was put simply by a felt pen. Such rapid production also affects the quality of the projectile. We know that these high -precision missiles can hit the target with only 20 meters, I will not give examples.

And given the shelling of Lviv and the projectile entering the park area, we can assume that something goes wrong with ammunition in the Russian Federation. Of course, society asks a lot of issues, because it is directly related to the safety of citizens. People have the right to know why, say enemy rockets knock down over cities, why fragments fall. Every time I inform society why so, and that you need to keep yourself and loved ones.

Believe me, hostile goals are trying to intercept in the settlements. But given the number of air defense we have, we cannot increase the radius of cover of cities and objects, which will give the enemy additional chances to overcome air defense. From this it follows the importance of the F-16-they can intercept winged rockets or drones anywhere.