For more than three decades, the backbone of Ukraine's fighter force was Soviet: MiG-29s and Su-27s, designed in Moscow and maintained with whatever spares could be scrounged after 1991. That era has quietly ended.

According to an assessment published on 13 October 2026 by Defense Express, the Kyiv-based defence outlet, the combined number of Western-built F-16s and Mirage 2000s in the Ukrainian Air Force now exceeds the number of MiG-29s and Su-27s still flying. Defense Express put it simply: by quantity, the Western jets now predominate.

No official fleet figures have been published, and Kyiv keeps such numbers close. But the direction of travel is clear, and it comes as Ukraine's defence minister describes fighter aircraft as one of the best weapons the country has against Russia's newest threat: jet-powered attack drones.

What the Minister Said

The assessment followed a briefing that Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara gave to journalists on 11 October. He did not give numbers, but his message about aviation was unambiguous. Russia is fielding jet-powered versions of its Shahed-type attack drones, faster and harder to catch than the propeller-driven originals, and Khmara said Russia is developing jet drones capable of 800 km/h.

Against those, he said, fighter aircraft are among the most effective tools Ukraine has, and they are getting better at it. Pilot skill and coordination are improving, and Ukrainian aviation now needs fewer munitions to bring down each aerial target, according to his remarks as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

Defense Express connected the dots. Of the roughly 1,300 fighter air-defence sorties it says Ukrainian combat aircraft flew in September 2026, plus more than 250 strike missions against ground targets, it is reasonable to assume that most involved F-16s and Mirage 2000s. The outlet frames this as its own inference, and there is no official breakdown by type.

The minister also named the two things that limit how hard these jets can be pushed. The first is ammunition: for both the F-16 and the Mirage 2000, he said, it is critical to keep a reserve of munitions several months ahead. The second is maintenance, which he described as a bottleneck that the ministry is working to widen so that more aircraft are available for combat duty at any one time.

The Soviet Jets Are Not Finished

None of this means the old fleet is parked. Defense Express stresses that the MiG-29 and the Su-27 still matter, and the Ukrainian Air Force keeps posting footage to prove it. On 5 October its official account published video of a MiG-29 destroying an aerial target.

What has changed is the centre of gravity. The Western jets bring modern radars, Western air-to-air missiles and access to Western spares and weapons. The Soviet types depend on a dwindling pool of airframes and parts, and every loss is permanent. The loss of Capt. Marat Mambetov and his MiG-29 to a Russian missile on 1 October was a painful reminder of how thin that pool has become.

That is why the next step is already planned. Ukraine intends to move on to the Swedish Gripen and the French Rafale, with France saying it will begin training Ukrainian pilots on the Rafale in November. The fleet that went to war in 2022 was almost entirely Soviet. The fleet Ukraine is building will be almost entirely Western.

A Quiet Milestone

There was no ceremony and no official announcement, which makes it easy to miss how big a shift this is. In a little over two years of combat operations with Western fighters, Ukraine has gone from a Soviet-designed air force with a few F-16s to an air force in which F-16s and Mirages carry most of the load against cruise missiles and drones.

The constraint now is not aircraft types. It is shells, missiles and spare parts, which is exactly what the defence minister chose to talk about.

UNITED24 footage of a Ukrainian F-16 destroying a Russian drone. Air-to-air work against drones and cruise missiles is now the core mission of Ukraine's Western fighters.

Sources: Defense Express (13 October 2026); Interfax-Ukraine; ArmyInform; UNITED24 Media; Ukrainian Air Force.