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I believe that unleashing the air force, unless it's for something like firebombing cities, would achieve little and result in much of the airforce being lost. At this point, Ukraine seems to be able to use its air defense with near-impunity, as it gets US-quality targeting information and incoming warnings in near real-time and has actually functioning horizontal integration of battlefield information, whereas Russia's SEAD and counterbattery fire still operates on the principle of "report all the way up the chain of command and hope they will pass an appropriate order back down within a few hours".
I've heard it described in scuttlebutt as like one of those shitty safari tours where the guide finds the animals, helps the tourist aim the gun, and then the tourist pulls the trigger and goes home bragging about what a great white hunter he was in the bush. Like the Americans are phoning the coordinates to the Ukrainians, the British trainers are explaining on the phone how to punch the coordinates in, but the Ukies pull the trigger so "the US and UK aren't parties to the conflict" under traditional international law.
It was described incorrectly then, and you should read on that more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_Armed_Forces_of_Ukraine#Air_defense_systems
Ukraine operates mostly old Soviet equipment for counteracting cruise missiles (Like "Buk"), and no American instructor will pull the trigger for a Stinger or some other Western MANPAD. NASAMS are not yet deployed AFAIK.
Probably though, Americans warn Ukraine when submarines with Kalibrs launch their rockets though. But Russia switched to Iranian drones for strategic strikes in the last week.
And even if it was US, and UK personnel doing almost all the work and the Ukrainians "just pulling the triggers" (and I agree with you it isn't). It wouldn't exactly be an unprecedented level of involvement in post WWII wars were one major power was fighting a small power that was receiving a lot of aid from another major power. In Korea, and to a lesser extent Vietnam, Soviet pilots fought the USAF. Also China, while not an open full blown combatant like they were in Korea, had construction and AA units in North Vietnam. In neither of these cases was it considered a reason to go full WWIII on either the USSR or China.
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I mean, yeah, in a way this war is close to a perfect setup for the Imperium to fight against the Russians - in a properly declared war between the parties (nukes barred), contained by some gentlemen's agreement to Ukrainian territory, one could surely expect the Russians to at least shoot at the AWACS drones that have been circling around Ukraine's borders since the start and possibly even Kessler low-earth orbit for the next few decades (which doesn't seem to be all that hard). As it stands, they get a massive and highly motivated fighting force at no domestic penalty, and can continuously employ outrageously fragile intelligence platforms that normally would not survive in a conflict with a near-peer adversary to their own advantage.
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