Ukraine announced Friday that, for the first time since Russia’s invasion, it had shot down a long-range Russian bomber used to fire cruise missiles at towns in the war-ravaged country.
“For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force, in cooperation with Ukrainian defense intelligence, destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber,” said the Ukrainian army. said in a statement on social media.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a “technical malfunction” was to blame for the accident.
Russian officials said the plane crashed over the southern Stavropol region while returning to base and at least one crew member died.
Two other pilots were taken to hospital and searches are underway for the fourth pilot, the official RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
Footage circulating on social media shows the bomber spinning as it descends to the ground with fire near its tail.
Stavropol is a region in the Russian North Caucasus, east of the annexed Crimean Peninsula, which saw multiple attacks throughout the two-year war.
The plane crashed in the Krasnogvardeysky district of the Stavropol region, the governor said, about 400 kilometers from Crimea’s eastern border.
The shooting down of a Russian bomber used to fire cruise missiles at Ukraine would be a highly symbolic victory for kyiv, which has been hit by hundreds of nightly Russian airstrikes since Moscow’s invasion more than two years ago. two years.
AFP contributed to the report.
News Source : www.themoscowtimes.com
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