At long last American-made F-16s have appeared above the skies of Ukraine as many Ukrainians have anticipated their delivery, hoping these fourth-generation aircraft will be a game changer in the war. While F16s are vastly superior weapons compared to the older Soviet MiG29s, one of the key questions about the arrival of F16s is what their impact will be on the conflict and whether Ukrainian pilots will be able to master their advanced weaponry in a way that Kyiv can use these aircraft to defend its airspace and help turn the tide in the war. Joining me for this discussion is former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Philip M. Breedlove, who is a Distinguished Professor at the Nunn School of Government at Georgia Tech University and a frequent commentator on the war in Ukraine.

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to my inaugural podcast Eyes on Eurasia with Glen Howard. In this episode, I discuss the recent July 27 attack on Russia’s Wagner forces in Mali by the al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM militant group. The attack caused an estimated 82 Russian deaths and certainly ranks as one of the worst defeats for Putin’s Afrika Korps since Wagner mercenaries began operating in Africa.

No two experts are better qualified to discuss this topic than Jacob Zenn and Sergey Sukhankin. Jacob Zenn ranks as one of the leading experts in the world on African militant movements and insurgencies. In 2020 he wrote a groundbreaking book on the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram entitled Unmasking Boko Haram: Exploring Global Jihad in Nigeria.  Sergey Sukhankin is equally qualified due to his extensive writings on Wagner’s overseas operations not just in Africa but other parts of the world. In 2020 he published a landmark study entitled War by Other Means: Russia’s Use of Private Military Contractors at Home and Abroad.