In his speech on Friday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clarified that these aircraft had been shot down by missiles.
The Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down three Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers in the south of the country on Friday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky specifying that this had happened in the Kherson region where fighting is raging.
“Today at noon, three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers were shot down in the southern operational zone”announced on Telegram the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk.
In his speech on Friday evening, President Zelensky clarified that these planes had been shot down by missiles, and declared himself “grateful to our soldiers who destroyed three Russian Sukhoi planes at once. In the south – in our Kherson region.”
“Let every Russian pilot know our response to every Russian killer – none of them will go unpunished”added Mr. Zelensky.
The Air Force did not specify the fate of the planes’ pilots.
Russian authorities did not immediately confirm the incident. But the influential Russian military blog Fighterbomber reported “combat losses” due, according to him, to the Patriot air defense system supplied by the United States.
