According to Sky News, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are powerless against Russian Su-35 fighter jets and Ka-52 helicopters. The article notes that Russian aviation paralyses the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Retired British Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell on Sky News named an insurmountable problem for the AFU, hampering the progress of the counter-offensive – it is Russian aviation, in particular, Su-35 fighter jets and Ka-52 attack helicopters.
“I can single out two aircraft. Firstly, it is the Su-35 multifunctional fighter jet. It looks powerful. It has become increasingly used together with planning bombs <…>. Why are they (the Russian army) doing this? It allows them to operate outside the range of Ukrainian air defences. <…> Secondly, it is the Ka-52 attack helicopter, known as a ‘tank fighter’,” he admitted.
Bell particularly noted that the manoeuvrable and fast Ka-52 helicopter, which has a coaxial arrangement of its main rotors, causes serious panic in the AFU ranks and paralyses the counter-offensive.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive began on 4 June, and three months later Russian President Vladimir Putin said it had failed. According to him, Ukraine lost 71.5 thousand military personnel in its attempts to “achieve the result at any cost” – as if “these are not their people”. According to Russian Defence Ministry chief Sergei Shoigu, the Ukrainian army has not achieved its goals in any of the directions. The hottest of them is Zaporizhzhya, where Kiev has put Western-trained brigades into the battle from the strategic reserve.