This is the dramatic moment when the Ukrainian air force shoots down yet another Putin fighter jet worth £15m, in the latest blow to Russia’s failing war effort.
According to Ukrainian sources, a Sukhoi SU-25 attack aircraft explodes in a fireball while flying over Ukrainian positions around Kramatorsk.
The plane was supposed to fire flares to distract heat-seeking missiles while flying low over the border with another plane in eastern Ukraine. According to reports, the plane was hit before plummeting to the ground.
Anti-aircraft guns from the 28th Mechanized Brigade shot down the latest Su-25 attack with a man-portable surface-to-air missile, the sources said.
Russia has launched devastating attacks in Ukraine since Kiev invaded the Kursk region earlier this month. President Zelensky says the damage has been limited thanks to US-supplied F-16s that are now destroying foreign missiles.
A Ukrainian fighter jet appears to chase one of Putin’s SU-25 fighters over eastern Ukraine
The SU-25 appears to fire flares in an attempt to deflect a Ukrainian missile attack
But the video then apparently shows the jet going up in flames and unable to fend off the attacks
File photo shows a Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet
Russian attacks in Ukraine have intensified in recent days, with several Ukrainian regions targeted by a combination of missile and drone attacks.
At least five people were killed, including two when a hotel in the centre of Kryvyi Rih was “wiped out” by a rocket, local officials said.
Three people were killed in an attack in Zaporizhia.
Zelensky has vowed revenge and called on allies to bolster Ukraine’s ammunition stockpile to keep up the momentum as Kiev retreats onto Russian territory.
The downing of an SU-25 is another Ukrainian success and could encourage Ukrainian allies to continue supplying Kiev with weapons.
“The fate of the crew is still unknown, but we are sure that our infantry has one less problem,” the 28th Brigade said on social media.
In total, the Russians lost at least 33 Su-25 attack aircraft during the invasion of Ukraine, according to calculations by the OSINT project Oryx, which documents equipment losses on both sides of the conflict.
Other analyses show that Putin deployed as many as 43 Su-25s in the war before this loss.
Moscow has not officially acknowledged the loss of another Su-25.
Yet Russia is making progress in the Donbas rust belt in eastern Ukraine.
However, Kiev’s troops hold 100 settlements in Russia in the Kursk region and are also trying to enter the Belgorod region, forcing Putin to move troops from Donbas and Crimea to defend his own territory.
At a war briefing this week, Zelensky called for more F-16 fighter jets and more training for pilots, revealing that some of them were used to shoot down Russian missiles during this week’s strikes in Ukraine.
He also indicated that Ukraine had tested its first domestically produced ballistic missiles, adding that he could not provide further details at this time.
Ukraine is seeking to develop its own missiles and related hardware to reduce its reliance on Western aid as the war continues.
Zelensky announced the deployment of the Palianytsia missile drone over the weekend, claiming that it had already been successfully deployed.
Although Ukraine has the capacity to produce between 1.5 and 2 million drones this year, he warned that the country still lacks the necessary financing.
Western support has helped Ukraine resist Russian attacks since the reopening of the Kharkov offensive in May.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers questions from the media against the backdrop of the Ukrainian Air Force’s F-16 fighter jets on August 4
The F-16 fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by Western countries will operate flights in Ukrainian airspace and help the current fleet of Soviet-era fighter jets counter the Russian invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Astrakhan Region Governor Igor Babushkin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, August 27.
A soldier of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine aims a Browning M2 machine gun during a training exercise in the Sumy region, near the Russian border, during the Russian attack on Ukraine, August 17, 2024
Russian soldiers fire an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher at Ukrainian positions at an unknown location in Russia’s Kursk region
Ukrainian soldiers ride in a military vehicle, during the Russian attack on Ukraine, near the Russian border in the Sumy region, Ukraine, August 11, 2024
The Russian attacks prompted some of Kiev’s supporters to give more flexibility in how Ukraine used the donated weapons.
Since then, Ukraine has been able to launch an attack on the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod, destroying key infrastructure and factories supplying the Russian military.
This hampers Russia’s ability to launch cross-border attacks on Ukraine.
Zelensky said this week that the Kursk invasion was partly intended as a precursor to a Russian offensive in the Sumy and Chernigov regions.
He added that it was part of a plan to find a lasting solution to the conflict, preserving Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
An advisor to Putin has said However, there can be no peace talks with Ukraine during the attack on Kursk.