Nearly six years after the COVID outbreak, there are fears of another health emergency after reports of the death of a Russian researcher in a suspected case of plague, which has prompted authorities to quarantine over 200 people in the remote Siberian region and enforce strict mask mandates.

Notably, reports suggest that the suspected plague bacteria might have originated from a Russian Anti-Plague Institute, bringing attention to Russia’s secretive biological weapons research programs and bringing back memories of the deadly 1979 Anthrax outbreak in the Soviet Union, which also originated from a research facility.

Authorities have acknowledged the death of a researcher due to a “suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection,” described as “pneumonia of unknown etiology.” However, federal authorities deny any lab release and say tests found no work-related pathogens.

However, concerns remain that Russia is hiding crucial details about the outbreak that could hinder an effective response.

The 28-year-old lab technician Darya Shipilova died on October 2 after reportedly breaking a test tube with live Yersinia pestis at an Anti-Plague Institute on September 25 while handling samples.

According to Russia’s national public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, the researcher worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Shelekhov.

Meanwhile, independent regional outlet Liudi Baikala reported that the death of the lab technician has prompted authorities to place nearly 200 people under observation at a hospital and enforce strict mask mandates in the region.

Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, noted on Telegram that this was in response to a “suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection.”

Alexey Tsydenov, the head of the neighboring region of Buryatia, said the woman “may have died of the plague.”

Meanwhile, US media outlet Axios reported that the White House is monitoring reports of a suspected plague case and related quarantines in Russia.

Russian health authorities, however, are trying to downplay the incident, saying the situation is under control and rejecting reports of a lab leak.

In a statement issued on October 4, Rospotrebnadzor said the “sanitary and epidemiological situation” in Irkutsk and Shelekhov was “stable,” Forbes reported.

The agency further said it conducted extensive testing and found no pathogens linked to the deceased patient’s laboratory work in her sample.

It added that testing of hundreds of people in primary or secondary contact with the deceased researcher has detected no new infections.

According to the World Health Organization, Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacterium usually found in small mammals and their fleas. People infected with Y. pestis often develop symptoms after an incubation period of one to seven days.

Bubonic plague is the most common clinical form.

Plague is transmitted between animals and humans through bites from infected fleas, direct contact with infected tissues, and inhalation of infected respiratory particles.

Plague can be a very severe disease in people, with a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 60% for the bubonic type, and it is always fatal for the pneumonic and septicemic kinds when left untreated.

Pneumonic plague is especially contagious and can trigger severe epidemics through person-to-person transmission via respiratory particles.

Historically, plague caused widespread pandemics with high mortality. It was known as the “Black Death” during the fourteenth century, causing more than 50 million deaths in Europe.

According to some estimates, Black Death wiped out one-third to one-half of the European population between 1347 and 1353.

Today, however, antibacterial medicines have greatly reduced plague fatality rates.

According to the WHO, during 2019–2025, most plague cases reported to the WHO occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar.

While Russian authorities are rejecting the lab-leak theory, saying there are no links to the lab technician’s death and her research work at the Anti-Plague Institute, Moscow’s previous record in handling such lab-leak incidents and hiding crucial information has prompted fears that it is hiding more information than it is sharing.

Notably, the lab-leak theory has brought back the painful memories of the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak, which, according to the official Soviet Union version, led to the death of 66 people, but according to independent researchers, caused the death of over a hundred people.

The 1979 Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak In The Soviet Union

In April 1979, a missing or improperly reinstalled exhaust filter at Compound 19, a military microbiology facility involved in the Soviet biological-weapons program, released aerosolized Bacillus anthracis spores.

Over the next few hours, wind carried the plume over the city. People in the plume developed inhalation anthrax over the following days; livestock in the area were also affected.

The Soviet authorities initially suggested the bacteria spread through “contaminated meat.”

However, hospital records, autopsy and epidemiologic evidence, victim interviews, independent research, and Russia’s own investigation in 1992 showed that the pathology was inhalation anthrax, not the gastrointestinal form claimed in the official “contaminated meat” story, and that most of the infections clustered geographically along the wind direction from the facility, and the strain matched material worked on at the site, establishing the lab leak theory.

Boris Yeltsin, the regional Communist Party official at the time who later became Russian president, publicly acknowledged in 1992 that the outbreak came from the military facility.

A 1994 investigation led by Matthew Meselson, which had access to official records and used wind data, victim locations, and strain comparisons, confirmed an accidental airborne release of a laboratory strain.

In 2016, researchers finally sequenced the genome of the bacteria behind the deaths, confirming it was a strain of the anthrax-causing bacterium Bacillus anthracis that Soviet scientists had modified.

It was one of the largest inhalation anthrax outbreaks in history and irrefutable evidence of the Soviet Union’s secret dabbling in offensive bioweapons research.

The event is sometimes called “Biological Chernobyl.”

Notably, the Soviet Union’s Compound 19 biological weapons research facility violated the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which the USSR had signed.

According to reports, the Soviets did similar tinkering with plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis); Francisella tularensis, the bacterium that causes tularemia; and Legionella bacteria, which cause Legionnaires’ disease.

There are also reports of similar leaks of deadly viruses and bacteria from Soviet biological weapons labs in the past.

For instance, in 1971, a young scientist reportedly fell ill after a research vessel, the Lev Berg, strayed too close to Vozrozhdeniya Island in Uzbekistan, where Soviets ran a secretive biological weapons research lab. Days later, the scientist was diagnosed with smallpox.

A year later, the corpses of two missing fishermen were found nearby, drifting in their boat. It’s thought that they had caught the plague.

Clearly, the Soviets continued working on offensive biological weapons even after signing the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

There are fears that Russia continued such research even after the Soviet Union collapsed.

In fact, dangerous viruses and bacteria have leaked from labs not just in Russia, but in other countries too.

For instance, after the natural SARS epidemic ended, the virus reappeared only through laboratory accidents.

For instance, in 2003, a 27-year-old researcher was infected when West Nile virus samples were cross-contaminated with live SARS coronavirus in a BSL-3 lab in Singapore.

Similarly, after natural smallpox transmission had largely ended in the UK, accredited labs were the source of outbreaks.

In 1973, a laboratory technician at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was infected after observing open-bench harvesting of smallpox virus. She transmitted it in the hospital before isolation; two visitors died, and a nurse was infected.

In 1978, a medical photographer, Janet Parker, whose workplace was above a smallpox laboratory in Birmingham, contracted the disease and died.

In 2015, CDC labs potentially exposed dozens of staff to live anthrax after incomplete inactivation. Separately, Dugway Proving Ground shipped inactivated anthrax spores that remained viable to nearly 200 laboratories in the US and several other countries.

In fact, researchers in the US have cataloged thousands of overt laboratory-associated infections in the 20th century alone.

According to the National Library of Medicine, “analysis of the available information revealed that only 18% of the infections were due to known accidents; 42% were caused by bacteria; 27% by viruses; 15% by rickettsiae; 9% by fungi; 3% by chlamydiae; and 3% by parasites.”

A Lancet study on ‘Laboratory-acquired infections and pathogen escapes worldwide between 2000 and 2021’ identified 309 published lab-acquired infections – eight fatal, including plague, meningococcus, Ebola, and one prion case – and 16 pathogen-escape events beyond the immediate worker, among them the Lanzhou Brucella outbreak, multiple anthrax and SARS incidents, poliovirus, and foot-and-mouth virus.

Clearly, lab leaks of viruses, bacteria, and pathogens are neither rare nor unprecedented.

However, the risks associated with such leaks increase manifold when the country of origin hides information and tries to mislead the world community to avoid responsibility.

At this stage, we can only sincerely hope that that is not the case with the death of a young Russian researcher in Siberia.

• Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK. 
• He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
• Story with Updated Headlines

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Amid nuclear threats to NATO and warnings of a “very short war”, the Russian military has struck another major bridge in Kyiv as German chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in the Ukrainian capital.

Zelensky told Merz that people were suffering “terrible nights and days” from the relentless Russian attacks, and called Ukraine’s adversaries “absolute barbarians”.

“We can see the entire pointlessness of this war at this place,” noted Merz. “These barbarous attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop. These are war crimes that are being committed daily here.”

Merz said Ukraine “needs all our support in the coming weeks”. “If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” he added.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry has pledged to accelerate strikes on “military and military-industrial facilities” and “related infrastructure in Kyiv” and elsewhere after Zelensky said Ukraine would intensify its attacks against Russian oil facilities.

On Saturday, Moscow had alerted foreigners and diplomats to leave Kyiv, saying “massive” new airstrikes would hit the city.

“The EU Delegation is staying. Threatening us will not stop Europe’s support for Ukraine. It only reminds us why that support matters!” EU ambassador Katarina Mathernova wrote on X on Sunday.

Earlier, Russia cautioned NATO it would be ready to resort to nuclear weapons if the Western alliance tried ​to cut off Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave that borders the Baltic Sea.

In a document sent to NATO, Moscow accused the alliance of ‌a “dangerous and reckless course” that entailed “high risks of the outbreak of a direct armed conflict”.

According to the document, this included the possibility of “Russian strikes against decision-making centers in the alliance’s member states right from the outset”.

“Russia will be ready to use the entire arsenal of forces and capabilities at its disposal, including nuclear weapons, in order to defend its territory should NATO countries undertake any attempt aimed at isolating the Kaliningrad Region from the ​rest of the country,” the diplomatic note said.

“If Europe attacks Russia, it will be a completely different sort of war – ​a very short war, ” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance had responded to Russia’s message by declaring: “We are a defensive alliance. And stop the nuclear threats. This is absolutely not called for and not helpful.”

Russia’s Red Line?

Earlier attacks on a Russian oil refinery in Moscow angered powerful Russians, including members of the State Duma, who urged radical change in military strategy.

The First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, Alexei Zhuravlyov, was quoted saying: “There is only one way out of this situation, and it is quite simple: the destruction of the terrorist Kyiv regime”.

He called for the elimination of all logistics, bridges, tunnels, and bomb railway stations — “it’s finally time to begin fighting seriously”.

Konstantin Malofeev, founder of Tsargrad media, questioned why Russia isn’t “fighting for real” and asked why Moscow was not using Nukes: “What else has to happen before we start fighting for real?” and “Why aren’t we using the nuclear weapons that our ancestors created and stockpiled… precisely for moments like this?”

State Duma deputy Andrey Gurulyov, a retired lieutenant general, has called upon Russia to “strike the enemy mercilessly, without hesitation” or “without overthinking it.”

The big question is: what would Russia attack, and what would the repercussions be?

Potential use of Russian nukes will result in widespread destruction and heavy loss of life. It would significantly reduce Ukraine’s chances of surviving as a neutral buffer state that actually contributes to Russia’s security, ex-IAF pilot and expert on the Russian military Vijainder K Thakur argues.

Instead, it would give US-led NATO an opportunity to indefinitely extend sanctions and bleed Russia to the point where it could be dismembered, Thakur adds.

If the Ukraine war continues for another four years, NATO could be in a position to enter a full-scale conventional war with Russia under the pretext of liberating Ukrainian territory. As long as the war in Ukraine remains conventional, NATO’s relative strength will continue to grow over time, and Russia’s chances of ending the conflict will fade away, Thakur believes.

Russia’s choice today is whether to fight NATO now, while it is still relatively weak, or to act decisively to end the conflict in its favor, letting NATO decide how to respond to Russia’s decisive action, whatever it may be, Thakur says.

• Mail us at: editor (at) eurasiantimes.com
• This is a News + Opinion Article
• With AFP Inputs

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Story Updated

Ukraine has outrightly rejected reports of maintenance and supply problems with its F-16 fighter jets, insisting it can keep them flying through winter.

Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported, citing The Wall Street Journal, maintenance delays and a parts shortage had grounded more than half of Ukraine’s fleet.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy acknowledged that Ukraine’s F-16s operate “intensively and under demanding conditions” and maintenance was “challenging”.

“Certain components for this early F-16 variant are no longer in production and are becoming increasingly difficult to source,” he wrote on X on Friday.

“However, recent reports alleging catastrophically low aircraft availability rates and excessively long maintenance turnaround times are simply false,” he added.

Tykhy said allies were now delivering overhauled aircraft faster than before.

“We have full confidence in our industry partners and their ability to further optimize sustainment processes, ensuring the highest possible levels of F-16 readiness and availability during the coming winter months, when these capabilities will be needed most,” he said.

Belgian company Sabena Engineering, which services Ukraine’s F-16s, also denied what it called “erroneous reports citing significant delays in this critical maintenance program”.

“All appropriate measures are being proactively implemented, in collaboration with its government and industry partners, to maximize aircraft availability and return the aircraft to service,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

Earlier Report

Ukraine’s F-16 fleet is currently facing a major maintenance crisis amid high-tempo operations driven by incessant Russian attacks, The Wall Street Journal stated in an opinion piece on September 30, citing informed sources.

Currently, more than half the fleet is allegedly in a “suspended” or “limbo” state while awaiting repairs and cannot be deployed for combat missions, the source reportedly told the publication.

This means at least half of Ukraine’s F-16 fleet is temporarily out of service.

Although Ukraine has not revealed the size of its F-16 fleet, reports suggest the embattled country has received between 40 and 50 aircraft so far. Of these, at least five have been lost in crashes since August 2024, as the EurAsian Times previously reported, and some have been deployed overseas to NATO countries for training Ukrainian pilots.

The Ukrainian Air Force may currently have fewer than 20, or perhaps 15, F-16s in flyable condition, as per EurAsian Times estimates. Ukraine could exhaust the remainder of its available aircraft by the end of the year at the current rate of operations and maintenance.

Notably, the F-16 requires a scheduled phase inspection every 300 flight hours. The inspection involves checks and servicing of the engine, avionics, hydraulics, fuel systems, and other critical components. This inspection typically takes two to six weeks in the US, but turnarounds are significantly longer in Belgium, where the Ukrainian F-16s are maintained.

The US contracted Sabena Aerospace Engineering in Belgium for intermediate- and depot-level maintenance of Ukraine’s F-16s under a deal worth up to $235.5 million. A phase inspection in Belgium is reportedly stretching to 40 weeks, the publication stated, citing the US Navy’s Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery.

However, experts believe the long maintenance schedule could also stem from delays in obtaining spare parts, extra repairs, scheduling gaps, and other work. In fact, the availability of individual spare parts and components has also been flagged as another pressing concern that further extends maintenance timelines.

It is pertinent to note that aircraft flying intense air-defense missions against Russian drones and missiles accumulate hours faster, especially given the incessant barrage of Russian air strikes.

In general, combat use demands more frequent or deeper maintenance, especially for aging airframes like the Ukrainian F-16s. Each sortie adds flight hours, which calls for inspection and maintenance.

The unavailability of F-16s in the future could be a major setback for Kyiv, as the Fighting Falcons are key to Ukrainian air defense missions. Ukrainian pilots flying F-16 fighter jets have already shot down over 3,150 enemy aerial targets, including 666 cruise missiles and about 2,500 drones of various types, as recently revealed by the Ukrainian Air Force.

The jets equipped with missiles, cannons, and APKWS II laser rockets have proven especially effective—and cost-efficient—against Russia’s growing fleet of one-way attack jet drones. These platforms, which fly at speeds of roughly 375–600 mph (600+ km/h), outpace many of Ukraine’s slower interceptor drones.

Russia launched nearly 2,000 such jet-powered drones in September alone, up from about 350 in June, according to figures cited by the Journal and consistent with Ukrainian official tallies. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interception rate dropped to about 55% against jet drones, compared with more than 90 percent against older propeller-driven Shaheds.

Notably, the latest reports come days after Ukrainian officials warned that the country has run out of AIM-120 and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles for F-16 fighter jets.

“In Ukraine, the missiles F-16s use are almost gone. AIM-120s and AIM-9s are running out. Patriot batteries are also critically short of PAC-3 interceptors needed to stop ballistic missiles,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s former press secretary Yulia Mendel said in a post on X.

About two weeks ago, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry wrote: “An F-16 without missiles is a ‘useless tool.”That’s how “Phantom,” an F-16 wing commander with @KpsZSU, puts it. Every night, our pilots take on Russian drones and cruise missiles over Ukrainian cities. On some missions, with air-to-air missiles in short supply, they finish the job with the onboard cannon. The jets are here. The skill is here. What we need now is more AIM-9s or AIM-120s and Patriot missiles,” appealing for the supply of the key munitions.

This could be especially troubling because the Ukrainian Air Force has increasingly deployed F-16s for offensive missions since March 2025.

One of these jets reportedly downed a Russian Su-35 multirole fighter jet on the eastern front in July 2026, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.

The Ukrainian Air Force states that the F-16 crews have carried out more than 650 airstrikes against ground targets so far. Both the AIM-120 and the AIM-9 are used in both fighters and ground-based air defense systems, further compounding Ukraine’s long-sustained air defense troubles.

Ukraine’s F-16 Conundrum

The F-16 Fighting Falcon’s unavailability is expected to put Ukraine in a bind in the coming months. 

With the F-16s stuck on the ground and Ukraine’s ground-based air defenses running critically low on interceptors, the country may face an increasing barrage of attacks as it approaches another harsh winter.

In fact, Russia could exploit this vacuum to intensify attacks on major infrastructure and energy targets, just as it has done in the past by increasing the use of ballistic missiles to exploit the shortage of Patriot interceptors.

Besides the F-16s, Ukraine also uses the French-donated Mirage 2000 for air defense missions, but it has only a handful in its inventory. Meanwhile, the other two aircraft, the Su-27 and the MiG-29, are mainly deployed for strike missions and are aging Soviet platforms.

That said, even though Ukraine has publicly disclosed its F-16 woes (missile shortages), it appears to be working to bolster the fleet. Zelensky announced earlier this week that Belgium will transfer three F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end ‌of the year to aid its combat operations against Russia.

”There is an important agreement with Belgium on the transfer of three F-16 fighter jets by the end of this year,” he wrote on X. “We will work to receive these aircraft through an accelerated procedure.”

A coalition of NATO allies pledged more than 100 F-16 fighters to Ukraine, although deliveries have not proceeded at pace. The Ukrainian administration could further press allies to expedite deliveries.

Zelenskyy also said the country received “urgent deliveries” of F-16 ammunition from Belgium and Spain, ahead of a “very good” assistance package: a NASAMS air defense system developed jointly by the United States and Norway.

According to previous reports, the Ukrainian Defense Industry has held talks with Lockheed Martin about localizing intermediate and some depot-level work.

Doing more work domestically would cut transit time and reduce dependence on a single Belgian facility. Ukraine could also tap into regional maintenance facilities in countries like Romania and Poland.

At the same time, Ukraine’s military and political leadership has been reaching out to allies and arms firms to augment its existing capabilities well into the future.

The Ukrainian Air Force commander Lieutenant General Anatoliy Kryvonozhko met with representatives of Lockheed Martin. At the meeting, Conor McGuire, head of F-16 capability development at Lockheed, said the company intends to help Ukraine enhance the combat capability of its existing aircraft platform. Additionally, the two sides discussed a potential transition to the upgraded F-16 Block 70/72 variant, according to reports.

Beyond the F-16, Ukraine also signed a deal with Sweden in June 2026 for Gripen fighters, which includes the transfer of 16 older Saab Gripen-C/D aircraft. However, they will only start arriving in the country in 2027, as the EurAsian Times reported earlier. 

For now, Ukraine is disproportionately dependent on its aging F-16 airframes to shoot down Russian drones and missiles, and issues with their combat readiness and shortage of spare parts could put the country in a state of extreme duress, at least until it mass-produces interceptor drones capable of downing Russian jet drones at scale or iron out maintenance issues on a war footing.

• Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari13 (at) outlook.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
• With AFP Inputs

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France has started preparations to train Ukrainian pilots to fly Rafale fighter jets ahead of delivery, Benjamin Haddad, France’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs, said. The question is: Will France-supplied Rafale jets end up like Russian Su-57s?

“We are currently discussing with the Ukrainians the issue of deploying Rafale fighter jets, piloted not by French but by Ukrainian pilots, in Ukrainian airspace. That is why we have also begun work on training these pilots,” said Haddad.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on July 13 that France and Ukraine agreed on a roadmap that will enable Ukraine to acquire 16 Rafale aircraft, besides other weapons.

“Earlier this afternoon, President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and I agreed on a roadmap between our two countries, implementing what had been agreed in principle last November regarding our bilateral defense cooperation,” Macron said at a news conference, referring to the Letter of Intent (LoI) signed between the two leaders for Kyiv’s procurement of the SAMP/T next-generation air defense system and up to 100 Rafale jet fighters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had acknowledged that the training for Ukrainian pilots and mechanics will begin in France this year. Once training is complete, Zelensky said the first four Rafale jets will be delivered to Kyiv.

“The first aircraft should be flying in Ukrainian skies in 2028-2029. There will also be additional radars and additional missiles,” the French President said.

Ukrainian pilots are highly experienced on Soviet-era warplanes and have mastered flying F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets, but moving to the cutting-edge Rafales could still be a formidable task and could take 12–18 months for experienced pilots to reach combat-ready status.

Ukraine already operates the Mirage 2000-5F delivered by France last year.

Since the Rafales are not expected to arrive in Ukraine for at least the next few years, Ukraine will bet on Mirage 2000-5 and F-16 jets amid Russia’s attacks on the country. But nearly 50% of F-16s and ground-attack aircraft could be out of action by year-end because of maintenance issues, EurAsian Times reported yesterday.

The omnirole Rafale can perform air superiority, ground attack, reconnaissance, and even nuclear deterrence missions. It can switch between missions with ease, unlike single-role planes, making it versatile across evolving battlefields. Rafale also provides sensor fusion, a digital architecture, Link 16 data links, and networked operations.

The Rafale features an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which enables it to identify and track targets at up to 200 kilometers, and the sophisticated SPECTRA electronic warfare system, which provides 360-degree threat detection.

These features will boost the Ukrainian Air Force’s situational awareness, survivability in contested airspace, and the ability to operate effectively against Russian air defenses and jets. The aircraft can carry SCALP-EG cruise missiles, AASM Hammer precision-guided bombs, and a heavy payload across 14 hardpoints while retaining air-to-air weapons such as Meteor and MICA.

“Meteor missiles that destroy targets at distances exceeding 200 kilometers will help us push Russian jets away so that they can’t use glide bombs en masse anymore,” Zelensky earlier wrote in a post on X.

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Su-57 vs Rafale

Russia has only a few dozen Su-57s in service. They are expensive and slow to replace, especially under tight Western sanctions, while Moscow works aggressively to export them and generate much-needed revenue.

India remains Moscow’s No. 1 client state for arms, and Putin has pitched the aircraft to New Delhi himself. India is believed to be evaluating the 5th-gen jet, despite reports of the IAF not looking for more Sukhoi variants.

Losing one over Ukraine would be a military and political blow for the Kremlin.

It would not only hand Western analysts the wreckage of arguably Russia’s most advanced fighter jet, but the aircraft falling into enemy hands could also seriously hurt its Russian export potential.

Ukrainian and Western reporting describes Su-57s firing Kh-59 and Kh-69 cruise missiles from well inside Russian airspace—often hundreds of kilometers behind the front lines. They have also been tasked with long-range shots at drones and cruise missiles heading for Russian territory, sometimes with short-range missiles carried externally.

Russia has claimed air-to-air kills with Su-57s (of drones and not fighter jets), but it has received little attention in the global media. However, Ukraine’s drones reportedly damaged Su-57s on the ground at Akhtubinsk in 2024 and deeper inside Russia in 2026, which were better reported.

There was no confirmation from Moscow, but things could have been very different had Ukraine flaunted the Su-57 wreckage.

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Ukraine is doing something similar with its fighter jets. F-16s and the Mirage 2000-5 fleet spend most of their sorties on air defense—intercepting cruise missiles and attack drones. They also launch glide bombs and AASM Hammers from Ukrainian-controlled airspace.

The Ukrainian Air Force has credited F-16s with thousands of drone and missile kills and hundreds of standoff strikes, plus at least one Su-35 shot down in 2026. They still stay away from flying deep and closer to  Russian S-400 coverage.

A Rafale deployment might follow the same logic: a July 2026 roadmap for an initial 16 aircraft (out of 100 per the letter of intent), with the first four transferable only after Ukrainian pilots and mechanics finish training, and operational use in Ukrainian skies discussed for 2028–2029.

Haddad’s point—Ukrainian pilots, not French ones—matches that.

Those jets would be most useful doing what the F-16s already do, only with longer-range tools: Meteor and MICA for cruise-missile and fighter defense, AASM Hammer for standoff strikes, all launched from behind Ukraine’s own air defenses.

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Using them for deep penetration could endanger them, the same way Russia has refused to burn its Su-57s. Both Ukraine and Russia face the same constraint: a handful of cutting-edge fighters that must be protected at all costs.

• Contact EurAsian Times at editor (at) eurasiantimes.com
• Follow EurAsian Times on Google News

 

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