ISW: To use F-16s, Ukraine needs to continue efforts to target Russian air defense assets

This is said in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), according to Ukrinform.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on August 4 that Ukraine received an unspecified number of F-16s from unspecified Western countries and specifically thanked Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States.

ISW continues to assess that Ukraine will need a substantial number of F-16 jets in order to field them at the scale necessary for Ukraine to succeed in integrating fixed wing aircraft into its wider air defense umbrella.

“Ukraine will also notably need to continue efforts to target Russian air defense assets within the Russian rear and in occupied Ukraine with Western-provided long-range weapons to enable its use of F-16 jets,” the report says.

According to experts, Russian milbloggers responded to the arrival of F-16s by trying to downplay their potential battlefield effects—directly undermining Russian information operations intended to frame the delivery of F-16s and other Western weapons systems as an uncrossable "red line."

Several Russian milbloggers claimed that Western and Ukrainian media are "overhyping" the arrival of F-16s in order to distract from battlefield failures, and many milbloggers turned to immediately discussing how Russian forces will begin targeting and destroying the aircraft.

Russian information space commentators and officials have frequently claimed that the delivery of Western weaponry to Ukraine constitutes a “red line”, that if crossed, will force Russia into an escalatory response

At the same time, Russia has repeatedly proven, however, that the invocation of supposed "red lines" is a reflexive control technique intended to force the West into self-deterring against providing Ukraine with additional military aid. 

“Western and Ukrainian policies have crossed Russia's self-defined ‘red lines’ multiple times since the beginning of the war without drawing a significant Russian reaction, which Russian milblogger comments suggest will prove to be the case with Russia's response to F-16s,” the report says.

As reported, on August 4, on Ukraine's Air Force Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented F-16 fighter jets in Ukrainian skies, emphasizing the beginning of a new phase in the Air Force’s development.