Kyiv claims to have destroyed an ultra-modern Russian SU-57 fighter on Saturday during a raid in Russia nearly 600 kilometers from the front lines.
As the Russian army continues its ground and air offensive in Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that they had bombed a Su-57, an ultra-modern Russian warplane, which was parked at an air base nearly 600 kilometers from the lines of forehead.
Moscow did not immediately comment on this information.
This target could be reached after Western allies authorized Kyiv to use their weapons for limited strikes within Russian territory.
Ukraine’s main military intelligence service shared satellite photos it said showed the aftermath of the attack. If confirmed, it would mark Ukraine’s first known successful strike against a Su-57, a twin-engine stealth fighter considered Moscow’s most advanced military aircraft.
The strike reportedly took place on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk base in southern Russia, around 589 kilometers from the front line. It is unclear exactly what weapons were used, but the distance between the airfield and Ukraine suggests it was likely hit by drones.
Ukraine has already used US weapons to strike inside Russia under newly approved directives from President Joe Biden, which authorizes the use of U.S. weapons for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The Ukrainian agency said the plane, capable of carrying stealth missiles hundreds of kilometers, was among the “rare” of its type in Moscow’s arsenal.
According to Russian agencies, Moscow’s armed forces were equipped with “more than 10” new Su-57s last year while 76 should be produced by 2028.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces had shot down three Ukrainian drones in the Astrakhan region, where the Akhtubinsk airstrip is located.
Since the full-scale invasion of Moscow more than two years ago, Kyiv has intensified its domestic drone production and used them to strike deep inside Russia, including against a gas terminal near St. Petersburg, located more than 1,000 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces continued drone attacks on Russia’s southern border regions, according to local Russian officials. Three drones struck Belgorod province on Saturday eveningdamaging a power line and blowing out windows, but without causing any casualties, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said another drone was shot down over the neighboring Bryansk region.
In the front-line Ukrainian provinces, Russian bombing killed at least three civilians and injured at least nine others Saturday and overnight, according to reports from regional officials. A man died and two women were injured in the village of Khotimla in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where shelling damaged the local school, a municipal building and a store, it said. Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Heavy fighting continues in the region as Ukrainian troops attempt to repel invading Russian forces after a week of push from Moscow which sparked fears for Kharkiv and a wave of civilian evacuations.
