The “hunt lasted a long time,” said Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov. It concerns the downing of three Russian fighter-bombers in the south of the country by the country’s air defense. On the Russian side, despite Vladimir Putin’s victorious speech in recent days, the The New York TimesS quotes a source assuring that the Kremlin is willing to sign a ceasefire provided the front lines remain as they are.
Around noon local time on Friday, Ukrainian forces shot down three Su-34 fighter jets in the country’s southern region, Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Olechchuk said in a statement. Later, it was the Ukrainian president himself who praised his country’s defense work. “I am grateful to our soldiers who destroyed three Russian Sukhoi planes at once, in the south, in our Kherson region,” he said. “Our response to all Russian murderers must be made known to all Russian pilots: none of them will go unpunished,” Volodymyr Zelensky continued.
According to reserve officer Andriy Kramarov, speaking to Radio NV, the planes were shot down by MIM-104 missiles using the Patriot air defense system. “Western experts say this is the tenth plane shot down by the Patriot system. I would like to point out that this is the first time that an aircraft, and not a missile, has been shot down by the Patriot system in actual combat. zone, and it is in our war that the system proves itself.”
“Now we can reveal a little secret: the hunt took a long time,” Danilov said when talking about the Russian planes. According to the place Oryx, which monitors combat losses in Ukraine based on open sources, Russia had lost 539 aircraft since February 24, 2022 and before this news, of which 82 were fighters, 22 of which were from the Su-34 family. On the Ukrainian side there was a loss of 325 aircraft, including 71 fighters.
Contrary to recent statements by the Russian leader and those close to him, the invaders will be willing to negotiate a ceasefire. “They are willing to negotiate a ceasefire,” he said The New York Times a senior official from an undisclosed country who has met with Russian counterparts in recent months. However, there is one condition: ‘They want to stay where they are, on the battlefield.’
In Vladimir Putin’s latest statements, he reiterated that he was not interested in stopping the “special military operation” until it achieved the objectives proposed at the beginning of the invasion, especially since, he stated, the initiative site now belongs to his army. – and it is publicly known that Ukraine is suffering from a shortage of ammunition and weapons.
Source: DN
