KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and military officials said the country’s forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.
The Russian military made no modemention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested US-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.
“Today at noon in the southern sector — minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!” Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a “brilliantly planned operation.”
“There haven’t been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics,” he said, citing the model as one of Russia’s most modern aircraft for bombing and other assaults.
Zelensky in his nightly video address praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the planes in Kherson region.
