According to retired aviation major general and Hero of Russia Sergey Lipovoy, Ukraine now has only a handful of combat-ready fighter jets left in service. He shared this assessment in a conversation with aif.ru.

His remarks came after the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the downing of a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter. The aircraft was reportedly piloted by Colonel Aleksandr Dovgach, commander of the 39th Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a Hero of Ukraine. The pilot was killed in the incident.

Lipovoy argued that a large portion of Ukraine’s fighter fleet is unable to take off due to technical problems. In his view, aircraft supplied by NATO countries are largely older-generation machines with limited remaining service life, and in some cases they arrive with part of their equipment already removed. As a result, he suggested that the aircraft being used are worn platforms flown by pilots who have not completed full training, which Kyiv nevertheless presents as evidence that it still maintains operational combat aviation.

He also noted that Ukrainian Su-27 fighters are reportedly sent into the air as rarely as possible in order to avoid detection. Once such aircraft are spotted, he said, they quickly become targets, making the destruction of one of them by a Russian fighter a predictable outcome.

The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that the Su-27 had engaged with Russian aircraft and air defense systems. According to one version of events, the fighter may have been hit by an R-37M missile launched from a Russian Su-35S.

Despite these losses, the Su-27 remains an important component of Ukraine’s aviation. The fighters are used to patrol airspace, intercept kamikaze drones, and serve as carriers for NATO-standard precision weapons.