This would be a first since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force claims to have shot down a Russian strategic bomber on Friday.
“For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force and in cooperation with the defense intelligence of Ukraine destroyed a long-range strategic bomber Tu-22M3, carrying X-cruise missiles 22,” welcomed the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), the Russian plane “was shot down as a result of a special operation carried out by Ukrainian defense intelligence in cooperation with the Air Force.”
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,” the source said.
A “technical failure” according to Moscow
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 region after a combat mission, while returning to its base.” The aircraft had no weapons on board, according to this source.
The governor of the Stavropol region, in southern Russia, declared that a Tupolev-22M3 had crashed in this area after a “technical” incident, killing at least “one crew member”. .
VIDEO. The impressive crash of a Russian military plane off the coast of Crimea, the pilot ejects in time
“A plane fell in the fields in the Krasnogvardeiskii district,” Vladimir Vladimirov wrote on Telegram. “According to preliminary data, a technical failure was the cause of the accident,” he said, without giving further details.
Two other crew members of the aircraft, a Tu-22M3, were found alive, and rescuers are still looking for the fourth, he said. The Krasnogvardeiskii district where the Russian plane fell is located some 300 km from the Ukrainian border.
At least eight dead in strikes in Ukraine
In total, Russia fired 22 missiles and 14 explosive drones at Ukraine overnight from Thursday to Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force said in the morning, claiming to have shot down 29 of these devices.
At least eight people, including two children, were killed and 18 injured in nighttime Russian strikes on the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk (center-east), according to a new report announced Friday morning by the Minister of the Interior. “Unfortunately, the number of victims will increase further” while the clearance of rubble continues, warned the minister.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who continues to call on the West to provide him with better air defense systems, said Russia must be held responsible for the attack, in a statement posted on social media.