In Just Two Weeks, Ukraine’s F-16s Have Devastated Numerous Russian Command Posts

The F-16 excels in a strike role

Pictures provided by the Ukrainian Air Force

Today’s big story comes from the skies over Ukraine, where Kyiv’s newly expanded air force has launched a surgical airstrike campaign aimed not just at Russian soldiers, but at the very nerve centers of Russia’s battlefield leadership.

In the last two weeks, Ukraine’s F-16s and Mirage 2000s, combined with MiG-29s armed with Western smart munitions, have struck 19 high-value Russian targets.

Many of these targets were not just random outposts. They were command posts, troop concentrations, and drone hubs, the kind of assets that hold Russian offensives together by a thread.

And threadbare is exactly how Russia’s military is starting to look.

The New Air War: Ukraine’s Tactical Revolution

It all started with months of systematic strikes on Russian air defenses. In recent months, Ukraine has significantly increased strikes on Russian air defense systems, reportedly destroying and damaging numerous systems, including S-400, S-300, and S-350 systems.

Storm Shadows and deep-strike drone raids cleared enough breathing room for Ukraine’s fighter pilots to finally fly with less fear of being plucked from the sky.

Once that corridor opened, the F-16s and Mirages went “fangs out.”

Near Grafivka in Belgorod, Ukrainian pilots delivered a precision strike with American GBU-62 JDAM bombs, obliterating a Russian checkpoint turned ammunition dump. Not far from there, a string of Ukrainian air raids hammered force concentrations in Guevo and Goptarivka, stalling Russian reinforcements before they could mass.

Kursk took a beating, too. French-supplied AASM Hammer bombs, dropped from aging MiG-29s now reborn as smart bombers, leveled Russian drone operator nests and took out a bridge critical for armored vehicle movements.

Ukraine has been methodically capturing the initiative in the air for the past four months.

By the time strikes were hitting command hubs near Kupiansk, Soledar, and Pokrovsk, it was clear Ukraine had shifted gears. They were not just playing defense anymore. They were hunting Russian commanders before they could even organize their troops.