I’m kind of curious why this shift towards having the Russian Air Force being so heavily involved, when it was held back on for a long time earlier.

This isn’t even counting this loss:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/19/sukhoi-massacre-ukraine-has-shot-down-six-of-russias-best-jets-in-just-three-days/?sh=16027dba655f

But the recent rate of loss—six jets in three days—is unsustainable if it continues. The Russian air force has lost 95 jets since February 2022. That’s four per month. In the last week, however, the air force has written off warplanes at a rate of 60 per month.

For an air force that has just a thousand fast jets, losing 60 in a month would be catastrophic.

Maybe they’re thinking that Ukraine’s Patriot stores – which I understand are what’s being used to do the recent shootdowns of the RuAF’s planes – are low? Hoping to face-tank enough missiles until they can start leveraging the aircraft? I’d think that they’d do better to use ballistic missiles for that.

Is there particular urgency to act now such that the loss of the aircraft is acceptable?

Are they trying to exploit the present aid delay from the US?