Ukraine’s military says it shot down three Russian fighter jets on Friday in the south of the country.

Three Su-34 fighter bombers were shot down over Kherson region, the Ukrainian air force announced.

President Volodymr Zelensky thanked the servicemen who had downed the planes, saying the incident had occurred in war-torn Kherson Region.

Moscow has not commented on the claims, but influential Russian bloggers have reported losses.

In his nightly address on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the downing of the planes would make Russian pilots attacking targets in Ukraine aware that “none of them [would] go unpunished”.

  • BombOmOm
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    10 months ago

    The recent delivery of an additional Patriot battery from Germany likely enabled this victory as it means they didn’t have to leave a large civilian area undefended while they used it to protect the front line from Russian attack aircraft.

    • @Vub
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      1310 months ago

      They have about 130 operational SU34s.

  • partial_accumen
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    710 months ago

    I would love to find out Ukraine shot down the first one, then radioed the Russian airbase posing as the pilots and claiming great hits but more bombs needed and to send more bombers.

      • partial_accumen
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        310 months ago

        It was a joke based upon past success of Ukrainian defenders successfully calling in Russian artillery strikes on Russian personnel.

      • @SMillerNL
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        010 months ago

        Maybe not, but I agree I would love for that to be the story 😁

  • andrew_bidlaw
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    610 months ago

    What this article could add for a good measure, is how many strikes they could carry each day. This stat even theoretical is more understandable.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    610 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    President Volodymr Zelensky thanked the servicemen who had downed the planes, saying the incident had occurred in war-torn Kherson Region.

    In his nightly address on Friday, Mr Zelensky said the downing of the planes would make Russian pilots attacking targets in Ukraine aware that “none of them [would] go unpunished”.

    He also said he had spoken to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte about the future delivery of F-16 jets, as well as a new EU support package.

    Another blogger, Voenniy Osvedomitel, said the planes had probably been used to drop glide bombs on a Ukrainian position on the Russian-controlled side of the Dnipro River.

    Ukraine is facing an ammunition shortage as it continues to fight occupying Russian forces, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

    In a year-end press conference this week, Mr Zelensky insisted that Ukraine was not losing the war with Russia.


    The original article contains 274 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!