Dec 23,2023: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military officials said the country’s forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.
The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.
Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a “brilliantly planned operation.”
“There haven’t been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics,” he said, citing the model as one of Russia’s most modern aircraft for bombing and other assaults.
Zelenskiy in his nightly video address praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the planes in Kherson region.
The region was occupied in the first days of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion. Ukrainian forces have sought to regain territory and in November established positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.
Eurasia Daily, a Russia-based journal, said the Ukrainian account was plausible. Kyiv could have launched Patriot missiles, which have a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) against high-altitude targets, from the western side of the Dnipro River, it said.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told Ukrainian NV Radio he believed Patriot missiles most likely downed the Russian jets.
