Two Ukrainian fighter jets shot down by Russian Aerospace Forces and one by air defence Kiev down to 32 combat aircraft
Russian forces have shot down three Ukrainian fighter jets over the last 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
Two Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft operated by Kiev were destroyed by the Russian Aerospace Forces, while Russian air defenses have shot down a Mikoyan MiG-29 plane, the ministry said in its daily update on Sunday.
During the same period, the Russian air defenses also intercepted a US-made HIMARS rocket, four French-made Hammer guided bombs, and 55 drones, it added.
Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces lost more than 2,200 troops along the front line and dozens of units of various equipment, including several US-made M777 towed artillery pieces and British L-119 howitzers.
Two Ukrainian Su-27 fighters fly over a military base in the Zhitomir region. © Getty Images / Mykhaylo Palinchak
The production of Su-27s and MiG-29s started in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, with the fighter jets intended to counter American fourth generation aircraft such as F-15s and F-16s.
In July, Forbes reported, citing Oryx defense analysis data, that Ukraine had some 125 jets including Su-27s, Su-25s, MiG-29s and others when the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated in February 2022. Around 90 of those aircraft have been destroyed since then, it added.
A “coalition” of European states, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgium, promised to supply Kiev with some 80 F-16s more than a year ago.
Ukraine, which had received fewer than a dozen of the US-designed jets by early August, lost its first F-16 during its maiden combat deployment at the end of the same month. The Western-supplied warplane went down during a Russian missile and drone attack on targets in Kiev, killing one of the country’s most experienced pilots, Aleksey ‘Moonfish’ Mes.
Ukrainian investigators have not yet announced the reasons for the crash. According to media reports, the versions on the table include technical problems, pilot error and friendly fire.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not report shooting down an F-16. Some Russian outlets claimed that the Western plane could have been destroyed on the ground by an Iskander missile during a strike on an airfield in western Ukraine.
In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the use of F-16s in the conflict will make them “a legitimate target”for Russian forces, warning that the planes will be struck even at airfields inside NATO countries if they operate from there.
Source X/RT/AFP