“wall of fire from Russian artillery, drones, missiles, helicopters and jet fighters. “
So where are those Russian drones, helicopters and jet fighters? How come they aren’t currently in the fight?
When America goes to war we launch hundreds of sorties per day. The Russian air force has been a fringe player in this operation.
The problem is that Russia’s 40 year old aircraft have no protection against even Ukraine’s mediocre SAM defenses. Every time Russian planes overfly Ukrainian territory a few of them don’t come back.
Ukraine’s airforce is stuck on the ground for similar reasons and that has turned this into a WWI style war of artillery and infantry.
It’s apparent you did not bother to even look at the link I provided that contained a video showing a series of Russian combat flights over the Donbass?
And despite your stubborn belief and others that the Ukrainian air force is “stuck on the ground,” to the contrary, the Ukrainian air force has pretty much been decimated. The Ghost of Kyiv no longer exists.
Russian air flies about 300-400 sorties per day.
Regarding the 40 year old planes, how old are USAF aircraft on average?
Regarding lack of protection from the “mediocre” Ukrainian SAMs, are they “mediocre” compared to what? BUK and S300 are more resultative systems than any of those Western makers can offer.
Ukrainian air force is not flying because it was wiped out. They lost hundreds of plane without scoring a single AA kill .
I think the difference is that the Russians still have a significant fixed and rotary wing strike force. They’re not flying as much right now because of the anti-air, but also because the war is static. If the Ukrainians were to begin marshaling men & supplies for an offensive that would be different — that would be presenting targets worth the risk.
The Russians have run out of bombs and missiles too, and most of their planes are grounded because of lack of maintenance and parts.