Russia - threadbanned users in OP

What's the reason for the increased aircraft losses in recent weeks? Are the Russians being more aggressive and flying closer to the front line or has the loss of AWACs eg. A-50s, meant that it's more risky to fly?

Wouldn't that depend on the source of said obituaries?

But yes, supporting evidence if valid.

I saw a tweet 2 weeks ago that Russians managed to get the air superiority in some parts of eastern Ukraine. And then boom, su34s and su35s started dropping like flies. But out of 9-10 planes there's only like 3 video evidences or confirmations fighterbomber, which is/was reliable Russian source. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of propaganda from UA side

I'm just surprised by Macron, his words have come depressingly close to appeasement at times, this is unusually tough talk from him. I wonder what prompted it

We'd have been ruled by Sinn Fein since the mid eighties if not before!

Seems like an outdated concept to have such a high price asset if its that vulnerable , better to develop a sophisticated drone for 1/10th the price

I see it as a positive in general, attacking a country (for good or bad reasons) is getting more expensive and the advantage is falling to the defender , there ought to be less war if it gets nose-bleedingly expensive and disadvantageous.

Disappointing to see other euro nations rushing to put the dampeners on the macron comment/suggestion. Germany, Spain etc.

Personally I believe its the only way to end this war with Ukraine keeping it's original borders intact. At the moment it feels like Putin is getting more and more confident. Are we all going to wait till Russian boots are at the outskirts of Kiev before we realise we've messed up?

An air defense mission alone would be massively helpful. Provide coverage in the interior to allow Ukraine to push its organic assets closer to the front, to where they could penetrate into Russian territory. Deny the Black Sea airspace for the Russians. Not explicitly confrontational but enough to tip the balance. The Euro countries would have to be prepared to engage any air defense assets that might try to engage them though.

Yes, it would of course need to have a bit of weight to mean anything. It doesn't necessarily have to threaten Russia but the countries involved would want to accept they are going to have to make a serious response if (say) Russia is advancing in East of Ukraine and Putin decides to test their will to protect [rest of Ukraine] by directly attacking any troops they have sent into still unoccupied parts of the country. Will be very scary times anyway if it happened.

I am not sure if there's additional information (other than what we can all see/what is being reported on - Ukraine is being starved of resources and suffering from it). Also not sure if it is that sudden a change. Macron has always struck me as a pretty cold and rational creature and I think for a good while he's accepted that Putin/Russia are not backing away from this any time soon, despite the horrific cost. The days of the phone calls to Putin are long gone.

So either they will have some kind of "win" over Ukraine by Putin's own lights (even if it looks insane to us at the price/cost), they will be fought to a standstill and finally just run out of energy and will to continue the war (a N/S Korea type situation?) or they will be beaten backwards by military force. The latter 2 outcomes will not happen without large amounts of Western support to Ukraine continuing + increasing. The idea of peace deals and negotiations seems like a pipedream for now, and he realises that IMO.

Did you miss the word effectively? Having an alliance with an ally that is no longer reliable isn't worth a damn. Europe needs to see that. Poland sees it, hence why it is arming itself to the teeth. Other European countries are starting to wake up to that reality but at its usually snails pace.