According to the aviation-safety database, a Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-30 is said to have been shot down by Ukrainian armed forces over Irpin and another Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-34 bomber plane is said to have been shot down by Ukrainian armed forces near Volnovakha.
Sukhoi Su-30 Crash Details
A tweet from Lieutenant General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, read: “We have just shot down a Russian SU-30 fighter aircraft over Irpin. The combat crew of the air defense complex worked perfectly!”
Irpin is a satellite city located on the Irpin River in Kyiv Oblast right next to Kyiv city in northern Ukraine.
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The news comes after several large explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of March 3.
Air raid sirens have continued to sound in Kyiv as Ukraine suffered mass casualties on March 2 and confirmed that Ukraine’s strategic city of Kherson had fallen.
Sukhoi Su-34 Crash Details
Ukraine’s military announced on Thursday it had shot down a Sukhoi Su-34 light bomber operated by Russia. The Ukrainian General Staff announced on Facebook “A Russian SU-34 fighter-bomber has just been shot down by a Joint forces air defence unit near the town of VOLNOVAKHA.
The pilots of this plane carried out a barbaric bombardment of the civilian population and infrastructure of the city.”
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The Su-34 is an extensively modified version of the Su-27 air superiority fighter and is optimized for long-range air-to-surface attack missions using bombs and missiles.
It has advanced electronics to aid in low-level flying and accurate weapons delivery. The Su-34 is different from other variants of the Su-27 family, due to its larger size and take-off weight and distinctive ‘platypus-shaped’ nose, which enables the carriage of an advanced radar.
The Ukrainian military announced on Thursday it estimated Russia has lost about 9,000 personnel in the invasion, which began a week ago, as well as 217 tanks and 900 armored vehicles.
There has been variance in reporting of the death toll. On Wednesday, Russia claimed 498 of its soldiers had been killed and 1,597 have been injured in the first week of the invasion. However, western officials believe the casualties are significantly higher.
