After at least four U.S. F-16 fighter jets were lost, on July 22 local time, the Ukrainian Air Force's Mirage-2000 also experienced its "first blood,". Currently, the Russian side insists that this Mirage-2000 was shot down by the Russian Aerospace Forces. The Ukrainian Air Force only said it was due to a malfunction, "crashed by itself" by the Ukrainian Air Force pilots. However, it can be confirmed that this Ukrainian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jet did crash, which means that the Russian Aerospace Forces have completed their first kill! The point of contention for Ukraine is how the Russian Aerospace Forces could hit this Ukrainian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jet in the Volyn region in western Ukraine?
Regarding this, Russian military expert and former air force and air defense officer Vladislav Shurikin believes that the French Mirage-2000 fighter jet cannot fight equally with the Su-30SM and Su-35 fighters. He said: "The French-made Mirage-2000 fighter jet is not ready for long-range air combat, as the onboard radar of the Russian Su-35S fighter jet can detect flight targets up to 350 kilometers away. Ukrainian Air Force pilots flying the French fighter jets would not even realize they were trapped in the line of sight, and would not know where the Russian missile came from, which would be a huge and final surprise for them."
Russian experts believe that the Ukrainian Air Force flying the Mirage-2000 fighter jet has been brushing against the Polish border, avoiding the strike of the Russian Aerospace Forces at a safe distance, and circling in the skies of Lviv or Ivano-Frankivsk. The area where the Mirage-2000 fighter jet crashed is in the Volyn region, which is in western Ukraine, bordering Poland to the north, and Belarus. From the current situation, if the Russian military wants to shoot down the Mirage-2000 fighter jet, the Russian Aerospace Forces need to fly their Su-57, Su-35, and Su-30SM fighters over the airspace of Belarus and then launch the R-37M long-range air-to-air missiles with a range of 300 kilometers, combined with the "Zhuk" passive electronically scanned array radar of the Su-35 fighter jet to complete the shooting down of the Mirage-2000 fighter jet.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova previously warned that supplying French Mirage-2000 fighter jets to the conflict area would only worsen the situation of Ukraine and its Western allies, pushing them into a dead end.
Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1838404665463945/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.