The Ukrainian Air Force claims to have shot down a Russian strategic bomber on Friday. Moscow does not confirm Ukraine's intervention and cites the crash of a plane following a "technical failure" without specifying.
This would be the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine. The impact in the air took place "at a distance of approximately 300 km from Ukraine" thanks to "the same means as those which had made it possible to shoot down the Russian A-50 radar detection and control plane at long range. The bomber was able to fly to the Stavropol region, where it crashed, according to a source in the Russian army. The aircraft had no weapons on board, says the source, and the crash killed at least one of the crew members. The Russian Defense Ministry has not confirmed Ukrainian fire targeting one of its planes, but a source within the army told the state news agency TASS that a Tupolev-22M3 supersonic bomber "crashed in the Stavropol area after a combat mission.