Long interview with UkrAF S-300 battalion commander Oleksandr in Ukrainian.

English notes in thread below.

Note: not a full transcript, just items that I found at least somewhat noteworthy

The Ukrainian Air Force: hurt but not defeated

The high res sat images of Starokostyantyniv Airbase from Mar 15 2022 are jaw dropping. It’s as if they tell the entire story of the early part of the air war over Ukraine and of the resilience of the UkrAF and its people.

1/ OPSEC:
1.Reminder: these images are over 11 months old
2.These images are available for purchase to anyone including the enemy
3.I have several sets of newer images. What I choose to show is informed by whether the assets seen are still there

2/

OK so apparently Ukraine's GUR got themselves a Black Hawk.

https://twitter.com/DI_Ukraine/status/1628009819310288900

And a Mi-24

https://twitter.com/DI_Ukraine/status/1627967101586604033?s=20

Confirmation that the Sea Sparrow air defense missiles being provided (ostensibly for use off of Buk launchers) are of the RIM-7 generation

https://twitter.com/Mike_Eckel/status/1611458991653113856

as opposed to RIM-162 ESSM

The CO of UkrAF's 7 BrTA (the sole Su-24M/MR unit) gave a long and fascinating interview to Ukrainian journalist Butusov's YT channel. No English available but I'll list some highlights below.

Col Yevhen Bulatsyk has been the unit CO for several years now. He has done several interviews lately, largely to help commemorate his brigade's air crew that have been lost in the war. This interview is by far the most interesting.

This is the Ukrainian S-300V1 air defense system thread that nobody asked for.

Admittedly much less is known about this system compared to the S-300P. However it is not quite the enigma-wrapped-in-a-mystery-wrapped-in-a-(pixel coloured)-vest that it has been made out to be.
1/ OPSEC note: everything is from open sources. Furthermore, vatniks already know all this and have written as much. Only English-speaking Ukraine supporters are in the dark.
Photo credits: everything is either from Ukraine government entities and/or from mil.in.ua
2/

Based on the camo this appears to be the first proof of foreign supplied (Poland) examples of the Osa (SA-8) air defense systems. The UkrGF's 4 air defense regiments operate the Osa.

https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1608845641396125697

I realize that for folks that followed that certain kind of western analysis before Feb 24 ("...VKS real world combat experience in Syria...") there may be some unknowns about Ukrainian SA-8s. Such as:

Reference thread of special liveries used on Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s. Does not cover rare camouflage patterns. Explains real and faux Falcons.
0/ North America tour 1992 special livery

2 aircraft (a single and a UB) painted. Both from Ivano-Frankivsk regiment. Demo flights conducted in US and Canada. Single seater painted into real falcon later. UB eventually painted into camo.

0 aircraft remain in this c/s

1/

Some notes about the history of the UkrAF MiG-29 airframe that was painted in a one-off Falcon inspired colour scheme this year and lost in October now that its identity has been confirmed

1/

@CombatAir @LatinMilitaryAv @CombatAir @LatinMilitaryAv It was manufactured in the summer of 1990 and delivered to the USSR Air Force's 161 IAP/MIAP in Limanske, Odesa region, numbered as 31 Blue. It would have been painted in standard Soviet greenish-grey camo, as seen on sistership 35 Blue circa 1996

2/

airliners.net/photo/Ukraine-…

Ukraine is being destroyed by low flying cruise missiles and loitering munitions. The air defense system it defends itself with is being gradually reduced to nothing. The West is unwilling and unable to replace this capability with ground based air defense systems alone
1/ With some basic geometry/math we can see why. Assumptions: radius of earth = 6378km
Area of Ukraine = 603,600km^2
Also, Earth is a sphere while Ukraine is perfectly flat (and made up of circles)
2/

Ukraine's ability to sustain its fleet of combat aircraft has been severely disrupted by the war. Let's use MiG-29 Ovheraul and Repair as an example. Over decades Ukraine established the ability to OH/Repair the airframe/engines/avionics domestically, intendent of russia Impact of the war on the major tier 1 facilities:
- Airframe overhaul plant bombed
- Engine overhaul facility bombed

Very interesting footage. The 2nd helo looks distinctly Afghan in camo but does not appear to be of the familiar Mi-17V-5 config, has clamshell rear doors and lacks RH fwd door

https://twitter.com/UkraineRussia2/status/1599078350433181698

The first helo is a Ukrainian Mi-8MT in non-factory green/green camo (I.e. painted over something else most likely)

an interview with a UkrAF Su-27 pilot from August. Nothing too interesting except that on Feb 24 he was part of a Su-27 element deployed a forward air base (read: Mykolaiv Kulbakine) to provide air defense coverage. That practice has been in place for yrs He too reports that the air base he was at came under attack in the pre-dawn hours FIRST and the aircraft were scrambled AFTER

This is a great long form video report from last month on UkrGF's air defense in Russian and Ukrainian. Osa, Tunguska, Strela and some MANPADS crews and equipment are featured I haven't seen the wholen thing translated into English and not going to tackle that myself but will highlight a few points that stuck with me

@R2BeepThrout I have never seen official data. For the S-300P I've done an estimate of the UPPER LIMIT* of number of missiles Ukraine could still have had in 2022 based on two different data points from. The two estimates are 2800 and 3800 missiles. @R2BeepThrout This accounts for missiles received from USSR, missiles lost in Crimea in 2014 (as a proportion of total number), some missiles used up in exercises

In the first days of the Feb 2022 invasion two S-300PS battalion sites of the UkrAF's 208th air defense missile brigade in Kherson region were overrun by advancing enemy forces. The following is a high-res-but-blurry sat image of the Nova Kakhovka site from May 2022
1/ Enemy helicopters are seen using the site as a forward operating base. Damaged/destroyed S-300 equipment is also visible
2/

Someone asked about the MiG-29MU/MU1/MU2. The idea of modernizing Ukraine’s fighter jets, including MiG-29 specifically, dates back at least to the late 90s, some discussions with Israeli firms were held at the time but the economics of a joint project made it unrealistic
1/ By the mid 00s the idea of modernization gained traction again. One way or another it was going to revolve around the Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant (LDARZ in Ukrainian) plus some domestic suppliers
2/

This is a quick historical look at how the UkrAF’s MiG-29 fleet evolved over the initial years of the russian invasion (2014-15). This is to illustrate the fluid nature of the force’s various fleets and highlight the difficulty in estimating the current state 1/ Background: In Jan 2014 Ukraine’s AF, MoD and other state entities had in their possession about 210 MiG-29/29UB. This does not include museum pieces and training exhibits. 1 a/c was completing overhaul to be delivered to Chad
2/
spotters.net.ua/file/?id=106253

Quick thread with a bit of original content (sat pics): did russia target a Ukrainian aircraft graveyard on Feb 24? Spoiler: of course it did

1/8 The picture above of damaged and destroyed Su-24M/MR at Bila Tserkva (BT) airfield has circulated through the ru keyboard warrior blogs, with some claiming these are 7 BrTA aircraft (they’re not), while others took a more sober view
2/8