Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

Anticipating Russian missile strikes, and goaded by U.S. intelligence, Ukrainian fighter brigades spread out their jets, crews and maintainers.

They weren’t alone. The entire Ukrainian military—and its supporting industry—dispersed in the hope of dodging bombardment. So when, for example, Russian ballistic missiles struck the home base of the Ukrainian army’s elite 1st Tank Brigade, in the city of Chernihiv just outside of Kyiv, the brigade itself wasn’t there.
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In the case of the 1st Tank Brigade, Ukrainian T-64 tanks were hiding in the forests around Chernihiv, waiting for Russian battalions to roll past so they could open fire. The brigade ultimately won a decisive victory.

The Ukrainian air force pulled more or less the same trick. The air force began Russia’s wider war on Ukraine with around 125 combat aircraft. It seems the Russians destroyed just one of these warplanes—an Su-27—on the ground at its base.

It’s possible the other 124 or so fighters weren’t even at their home airfields as Russian rockets rained down. They were tucked into treelines alongside stretches of highway in central or western Ukraine.