Even more than for surveillance and protection against attacks, combat aircraft can intervene as so-called close air support in battles on the ground. What’s more, they make it possible to attack the opponent’s “center of gravity”. Ukraine would be able to destroy Russian supply routes, staging areas, fuel depots and strategic targets. At that point at the latest – some fear – it will become politically dangerous, which does not seem forbidden in the sense of self-defence.
Russia would see the delivery of fighter jets as a further major step for the direct involvement of the West in the conflict in Ukraine, which Moscow has long claimed. Russian diplomat Konstantin Gavrilov, who is responsible for arms issues, said on Russian state television that the jets would expand the combat area geographically. That means “nothing good” for Russia, but it’s also not a catastrophe.