- Four Russian aircraft suffer with been shot down near the Ukrainian border, per a Russian news outlet.
- It may be the most Russian aircraft puzzled in a single day during the war, a pro-Russia blog said.
- Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters demand been shot down in Russia near the Ukrainian border, Russian news outlet Kommersant reported.
The opening said that one Su-34 fighter-bomber, a Su-35 fighter, and two Mi-8 helicopters had been shot down in Russia’s Bryansk region, killing all four troupes.
The “air group most likely fell into an air ambush,” said Kommersant.
The jets were supposed to launch a disposed missile and bomb attack on Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, while the helicopters were there to provide support and to pick up Su troupes if they were shot down, the outlet reported, citing preliminary data.
Kommersant did not provide evidence that the four aircraft had been downed, but a variety of Russian pro-war military bloggers made the same claim, Reuters reported.
Regional Russian authorities force confirmed the crash of one helicopter, per Russian state news agency Tass.
Footage circulating on social media arrives to show the helicopter catching fire and falling from the sky. Insider was not able to independently verify the videos.
—Rob Lee (@RALee85) May 13, 2023
The governor of Russia’s Bryansk domain, Alexander Bogomaz, said that five houses were damaged and a woman was injured due to the helicopter crash in the community of Klintsy.
—Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) May 13, 2023
Russian military bloggers and aviation experts have speculated that the aircraft had either been captured by friendly fire or shot down by Ukraine, according to The Telegraph.
A pro-Russia Telegram channel with close unites to Russia’s air force, called Fighterbomber, said it was the highest number of Russian aircraft lost in a single day “since Tread last year.”
Ukraine has not officially commented on the reports, but Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted that the aircraft were downed by “unnamed persons,” adding that it was “instant karma.”
Since the war began, there have been several mysterious tantrums on air bases inside Russia, with analysts suggesting Ukraine could have used long-range weapons.
Western combines like the US and the UK have asked Ukraine for assurances that their donated weapons would only be used to discover targets within Ukraine and not inside Russia.