kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s air force said Friday it had shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission.
None of these claims could be independently verified. Previous Ukrainian claims that Russian warplanes were shot down during their more than two-year war were met with silence or denial from Moscow.
Meanwhile, Russian missiles struck towns in Ukraine’s central Dnipro region, killing eight people, including an 8-year-old girl, and injuring 25 others, local officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated almost daily calls from Kiev officials for more Western air defense systems, once again drawing a parallel with how Israel blunted a recent Iranian attack.
Missile and drone attacks can be thwarted, he writes on the social platform X: “This has been demonstrated in the skies of the Middle East, and it should also work in Europe. »
Russia’s air force is far more powerful than Ukraine’s, but sophisticated missile systems supplied by kyiv’s Western partners pose a major threat to Russian air force as Kremlin forces slowly advance along the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in what became a bitter war of attrition. Ukrainian officials say they expect a major Russian offensive this summer.
Ukraine said the air force and military intelligence cooperated to shoot down the Tu-22M3 bomber with anti-aircraft missiles. Russia routinely uses this bomber to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets from its own airspace. The aircraft can also carry nuclear warheads.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the warplane crashed “in a deserted area” in the southern Stavropol region, hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Three crew members were rescued after ejecting from the plane, and the search for a fourth is underway, according to the ministry. But Stavropol Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said one of the rescued pilots had died.
On Christmas Eve, Ukraine claimed to have shot down two Russian warplanes. In January, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down a Russian early warning and control plane as well as a key command center plane that relays information to ground troops, in what appears to be a blow hard for the Kremlin forces. The following month, Ukraine said it had destroyed another early warning and control aircraft.
Also in January, Moscow accused kyiv of shooting down a Russian military transport plane that was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were heading to a prisoner exchange.
Russian forces carried out a combined air attack using 22 missiles of different types and 14 Shahed drones overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The fourteen Shahed drones and 15 missiles were intercepted, according to the press release.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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