The point is never to let a bully escape without battle scars. Never to let one escape without knowing he’s been in a stoush and for everyone else to see the marks on him.
We cannot afford to let the world see this is a totally successful operation.
We are in no position to stop them on the ground but we can bring down some of their planes, for a start.
Even the Afghanis were able to do that after we gave them some Stingers.
The Russkies main advantage tactically is air superiority and sheer numbers on the ground.
Deny one, extract a price for the other.