Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military authorities said on Friday that their forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on the country’s southern front, claiming it as a victory in the 22-month-old conflict.
The incident was not mentioned by the Russian military. However, Russian bloggers confirmed the loss, and analysts speculated that Patriot missiles provided by the United States were most likely employed.
“Today at noon in the southern sector — minus three Russian Su-34 fighter bombers!” Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, posted on Telegram.
On national television, Air Force spokeswoman Yuri Ihnat described it as a ‘brilliantly planned operation’.
“There haven’t been Su-34s in our positive statistics for some time”, he said, naming the jet as one of Russia’s most modern bombing and other assault planes.
In his nightly video speech, Zelenskiy hailed the anti-aircraft unit of the Odesa region for downing the planes in the Kherson region.
The territory was overrun in the early days of Moscow’s assault in February 2022. Ukrainian forces have attempted to retake land, establishing positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson in November.
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