New Delhi,UPDATED: May 14, 2023 09:37 IST
By India Today World Desk: Two Russian jets and two military helicopters were shot down near the Ukrainian border, while a fifth aircraft crashed Saturday on the Russian side, according to Russian news reports. Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters were “shot down almost simultaneously” in an ambush in the Bryansk region, Reuters reported quoting Russian news outlet Kommersant.
The aircraft were reportedly a raiding party sent to carry out an attack on Ukraine when they were gunned down.
“According to preliminary data … the fighters were supposed to deliver a missile and bomb attack on targets in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, and the helicopters were there to back them up – among other things to pick up the ‘Su’ crews if they were shot down.”
The Russian state news agency TASS said that a Su-34 warplane crashed and also cited an emergency service official who said an engine fire caused a helicopter to crash near Klintsy, 25 miles from the Ukrainian border.
The state news agency did not mention the Su-35 or a second helicopter, but Tass did say that a Russian Su-34 warplane crashed in the Bryansk region in Russia. Kommersant said all four crews had been killed.
There was no official response from Ukraine, which usually declines to comment on reports of attacks inside Russia.
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‘JUSTICE, INSTANT KARMA’
But in a Twitter post, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called the incident “Justice … and instant karma”.
A video posted on the Russia’s Telegram channel Voyenniy Osvedomitel showed a helicopter high in the sky suffering an explosion, being thrown off course and then plunging towards the ground in flames, reported Reuters.
” It appeared that most likely, the enemy staged an ambush with air defences previously transferred to a border zone close enough to hit our group”.
Two helicopters and fighter-bombers were shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, another Russian media outlet Readovka also reported.
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Kommersant provided no evidence for its report that four aircraft had been downed, but the same assertion was also made by several heavily followed pro-war military bloggers.
Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz late on Saturday said a Ukrainian drone had hit a food production plant in Starodub, close to the Ukraine border, damaging the roof, and there were no deaths reported.
The Moscow Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Kommersant report.
(With Reuters input)
