To divide
A Russian Superjet-100 passenger plane (top) and Su-30MKI (left), SU-35 (right) and MiG-35 (bottom right) fighters during a demonstration flight in 2009 (symbolic image) © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Russia shot down its most modern fighter jet last week. The same error may have happened again.
Mariupol – Just on Friday (6 October), a military expert confirmed: Russian troops do not learn from their mistakes. As if to prove this, Russia has apparently once again brought its own Su-35 fighter out of the sky over Mariupol. The American magazine Newsweek reported this on Friday, citing unconfirmed reports and videos. Last week, Russian air defense allegedly made the same mistake over the Ukrainian city of Tokmak in the Ukraine war, according to a British intelligence report.
Counteroffensive in the Ukraine War: Russian air defense apparently takes its own fighter out of the sky again
The alleged shooting down of a Russian fighter jet by its own troops reportedly occurred on Friday near Mariupol, according to several unverified reports, according to Newsweek. “At this rate of work of our courageous air defense, we will soon be left without aviation,” Russian military blogger Fighterbombe wrote ironically about the incident on the Telegram platform.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, shared a video on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that purports to show the location of the fighter jet crash. According to Russian military bloggers, the plane was shot down by Russian air defense, Gerashchenko wrote in the post. Experts estimate the cost of the loss to be between 43 million and 85 million US dollars (around 40 million to 80 million euros), which is approximately the value of each Su-35 jet.
Both existing video material of the alleged downing of the fighter by the country’s own air defense and reports on the matter could not initially be independently verified. Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian defense ministries initially confirmed the incident.
Kiev wants to regain control of airspace in Ukraine war – Russia’s friendly fire is helping
Germany promised Ukraine another Patriot air defense system on Thursday. Together with the anti-aircraft systems already supplied by the West and the announced F16 fighters, Kiev wants to regain control of Ukrainian airspace. Every fighter lost on the Russian side helps this cause.
The loss of one Su-35, in particular, hits Moscow hard, according to an excerpt from the report British Ministry of Defense about last week’s friendly fire over Tokmak. “Although Russia has lost around 90 fixed-wing aircraft since the start of the invasion, this is probably only the fifth loss of a Su-35S, Russia’s most modern fighter jet, which is used on a large scale,” he said. the London document. .
According to Newsweek, more than a fifth of Russia’s plane and helicopter losses since the start of the war have come from its own troops. “Friendly fire”, that is, mistaken friendly fire, occurs repeatedly in wars due to several factors – including incorrect or inadequate identification of the target.