Having more pilots than fighters is not uncommon. Even in the US squadrons will often have more pilots than planes. It's why you'll see multiple pilots names on a plane especially in ANG units. Also several aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Those aircraft had pilots now with no airplanes to fly...
This is why I never took it. Last time I saw something this rushed into peoples veins was the anthrax vax given to the military with noted side effects. Especially for something with a 99.8% chance of survival in my age group. And given we had it in November of 2019 before it was cool….
It’s been clear to anyone following and observing what we can through commercial SAR telemetry what he was planning to do however for a full on armored assault Putin needed frozen ground. Which didn’t happen. It was a warm Jan/Feb with no signs of changing as we go into March and the spring thaw.
I think the full invasion and taking of at least eastern Ukraine up to the major river maybe off the table. Unless Putin wants to lose hundreds of armored units to the mud and ATGMs.
What does seem to be on the table is securing Donbas and also taking Odessa and southern Ukraine cutting Ukraine off from ports and creating a land bridge between Crimea and Moldova.
On paper the Ukrainian military was much larger than the little green men back in 2014 and got routed. But this is not the Ukraine of 2014 and it’s not the Russian army of 2014 either. Russian has had the chance to modernize its tactics and gear in Syria over the last half decade.
He’s already got further division between NATO states especially the Baltic states and Germany out of this.
From H.I. Sutton.