Russia shoots down its own military plane in bombing mission: reports

According to unconfirmed reports, a Russian plane or drone was shot down over Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Saturday, possibly in a friendly fire incident.

According to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, the Russian plane had launched guided aerial bombs on Ukrainian positions and was shot down by its own ground troops.

Footage shared on social media shows a plane hit in the air by a missile and the remains of the plane after it crashed to the ground, although it is unclear whether they were taken during the same incident. A former adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs suggested that the downed plane was either a Su-25 ground support aircraft or a Hunter S-70 drone.

Russian forces are slowly advancing in Ukraine’s Donbass region, annexed by President Vladimir Putin in September 2022, but at the cost of heavy losses. Earlier this week, the Ukrainian military confirmed that it had withdrawn from Vuhledar, a town in Donetsk province that had a population of around 14,000 before the war, after weeks of intense fighting.

However, Putin’s troops are still struggling to retake parts of Russia’s Kursk province, which were seized by Ukrainian troops in a surprise offensive in August.

Citing a Ukrainian Air Force source, Ukrainska Pravda reported that a Russian plane was shot down over Donbass in a friendly fire incident. The newspaper said he was hit while dropping glide bombs, large but cheap explosive devices that were used to devastate Ukraine’s defenses. Russian military bloggers also reported that one of their planes was destroyed, although some details remain unclear.

Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, shared footage of a destroyed plane on X, adding: “Videos have appeared online showing a Russian Su-25 crashed in the Donetsk region.

“There are unconfirmed reports that it may have been friendly fire from the Russians themselves.”

Gerashchenko later said the plane could have been “a Russian Hunter S-70 drone that carried out a reconnaissance flight,” citing a Russian military Telegram channel.

News week contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment by email outside of normal business hours on Saturday.

Separately, the Ukrainian army released a video on Saturday showing a Russian tank destroyed by a drone which dropped molten thermite on it.

Several videos have been released showing Ukrainian “dragon drones” dropping thermite, a mixture of aluminum and rust that burns at extremely high temperatures, over Russian positions in recent weeks.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry also released its latest estimate of the number of Russian casualties over the past 24 hours. kyiv claimed that the Russians suffered 1,280 casualties and lost eight tanks and 31 infantry fighting vehicles during this period, although News week has not independently verified this claim.

Angelica Evans, a Russia researcher at the US think tank Institute for the Study of War, reported that as of October 3, Moscow controlled 98.8% of Ukraine’s Luhansk province. The provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk form Donbass.