A $36 million Russian Su-34 bomber was reportedly shot down by Russia's own forces over Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, Ukrainian media outlets claimed on Monday.
The jet was reportedly downed near Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region—one of the areas where the war is currently focused. Alchevsk is currently under the occupation of Moscow-backed separatist forces.
Videos and images shared by the Strategic Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Telegram messaging app on Monday appear to show the charred remains of a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber.
In the video, the cameraman states that a Ukrainian plane was shot down, but an inscription on the military plane states that it is a jet belonging to Russia's Air Force, local news outlets said.
Ukrainian media outlets, including TSN, reported that a message had circulated on Telegram that the Su-34 jet had been accidentally shot down by Russia's own air defense.
A Telegram user called Ruslan reportedly wrote: "The jet is ours unfortunately. Sometimes it happens. I heard the info from a friend, I thought bulls**t, but it was confirmed."
"Russian invaders from the air defense shot down their own plane, which was flying in the sky over Alchevsk," reported Ukrainian news outlet dialog.ua, noting that the incident could have taken place on Sunday when Ukraine's armed forces launched a targeted attack on military depots in the occupied city.
According to the Ukrainian news outlet Glavred, a video of the downed Su-34 aircraft was posted on local Telegram channels, and Russians at first commented believing that a Ukrainian plane had been shot down. The video was then reportedly deleted after it became clear that it was a Russian bomber.
Russian authorities have not commented on the reports. Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claims and has reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment.
И сами не летаем, и другим не даём (с) пво #всрф pic.twitter.com/X5dM5WyvNp — Necro Mancer (@666_mancer) July 18, 2022
Russia's state-run media has said the Su-34 costs approximately $36 million per unit. The fighter jets, and Russia's air force, have largely underperformed throughout the war which President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24, according to Britain's defense ministry.
In a separate incident in the Ukrainian city of Alchevsk last month, a video circulating on social media appeared to show the moment a Russian air defense system malfunctioned and the missile appeared to turn back towards the point where it was fired from.
The missile appeared to change trajectory after launch and struck near the system itself, local media outlets reported on June 24. The cause of the bizarre malfunction was not clear.
faceintheblue on July 18th, 2022 at 14:09 UTC »
Accidents happen in war, especially 100+ days into a conventional shooting war where neither side has air superiority and there is a lot of identical and similar-looking equipment engaging with one another. That said, you wonder how this happened. Was it taken down by ground fire somehow? You would think air defense missiles are checking for IFF and would recognize a friendly, right?
theblackshell on July 18th, 2022 at 14:03 UTC »
Article shows wrong planes in the associated photograph. Those are SU 57s which are Russia's newest multirole stealth aircraft.
oddentity on July 18th, 2022 at 13:56 UTC »
They must have thought it was a civilian airliner.