The Pentagon officially confirmed this past Monday that Russia had fired cruise missiles from Russian air space in an attempt to target the Yavorov military training facility located in western Ukraine near the border with Poland.
John Kirby, the Press Secretary for the Pentagon, stated, “This was clearly a Russian airstrike. Our understanding is that these were cruise missiles fired from aircraft long range on the Yavoriv training facility there in western Ukraine.”
A Pentagon official was quoted by Air Force Magazine saying, “These air-launch cruise missiles were launched from long-range bombers. Russian long-range bombers from Russian airspace, not from inside Ukrainian airspace.”
“Russia is believed to fly some 200 sorties per day while Ukraine flies 5 to 10 sorties in skies covered completely by Russian surface-to-air offensive missiles capabilities,” continued Air Force Magazine.
The Pentagon highlighted the point that the cruise missile strikes just amplified the idea of the inefficacy of any no-fly zones that the West could create and maintain over Ukraine.
Air Force Magazine was told by a defense official, “My big concern is at what point do the Russians decide that they have to cut off the … ground line of communication? The supply lines from Poland into Ukraine or from anywhere into Ukraine. When does Russia feel like, you know, between the sanctions and the military support to the Ukrainians, when do they feel like that’s provocative enough to strike back?”
Kirby was asked by one reporter, “To go back to these strike on the Yavoriv. Did you consider that as a turning point in the war? The fact that they start striking in the West. Or do you consider that as just a signal to the west that we can do that if we want?”
“I don’t think we would reduce something like this to calling it a signal,” answered Kirby. “I mean he — they use multiple cruise missiles here. Clearly, they had their reasons for targeting that training facility. And it is a Ukrainian military training facility. I’ll let them speak to their targeting justifications. … I wouldn’t think that we would consider this or the other strike in western Ukraine is some sort of turning point. The Russians clearly are expanding some of their target sets. That’s obvious just from the fact that over the last couple of days, we’ve seen other targets hit in Ukraine. It doesn’t change — I think our general understanding that they continue to be frustrated by a very stiff Ukrainian resistance.”
It was commented by another reporter that, “Often you say that Russia does not have air superiority. However, if Russia is flying 200 Sorties a day, and Ukraine’s flying five to 10 and can’t fly its combat aircraft, because Russia has complete SAM coverage. How is that not air superiority for Russia?”
“I’m not going get into the data metrics here with you,” claimed Kirby. “We still assess that, that Russia does not have air superiority over Ukraine and that the Ukrainians are defending their space ably.”