^ That's an old rusi post. Russia was not running a lot of air operations (other than choppers) in the beginning because Ukraine had 100 or so S-300 systems. Ai

^ That's an old rusi post. Russia was not running a lot of air operations (other than choppers) in the beginning because Ukraine had 100 or so S-300 systems. Airplanes and pilots are expensive. But they've absolutely been ramping up air operations in the past several months. But in general, why send in a jet when a standoff missile will do the same job with less risk? This by Andrei Martyanov (who's a US citizen fwiw) is worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS7kaHzRNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS7kaHzRNw