Gravest Yet One-Day Russian Losses

Four Russian military aircraft—two airplanes and two helicopters—were shot down in Russia’s western Bryansk region near the Ukrainian border on Saturday, 13 May 2023.

The lost aircraft—an Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber, an Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jet, and two Mi-8 Hip transport helicopters—were enroute to Ukraine, reportedly, in part to carry out bombing raids.

By whom the quartet of Russian aircraft was brought down remains unclear, as does whether any of the aircrafts’ occupants survived the attack—which is believed to have been carried out by way of ground-to-air munitions.

The four downings occasioned the most extensive single-day Russian aerial losses since the February 2022 commencement of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. What’s more, the attacks are ostensibly the first in which Russian combat aircraft have been brought down within Russia.

The losses came only one day after two Russian helicopter pilots lost their lives in a training mishap over Crimea.

On 12 May, Ukrainian forces made their first use of newly-supplied British air-to-ground Storm Shadow missiles, utilizing the long-range cruise apparatus to strike a pair of industrial sites in eastern-Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Luhansk region. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed the two Ukrainian fighter jets by which the Storm Shadow missiles were borne and deployed were shot down after firing such, and that the missiles had, in fact, struck civilian sites.

Notwithstanding the Storm Shadow missile having range enough to reach targets within Russia, Ukrainian authorities have promised to use the munitions only within the embattled country’s borders—so stated British Defense Minister Ben Wallace. While a number of nations have provisioned Ukraine with missiles, the Storm Shadow is the first long-range cruise-missile system supplied to Ukraine by the West.

In addition to carrying out what Kiev contends have been successful attacks on terrestrial targets within Russian-controlled territories, Ukrainian warfighters have utilized drones to attack Russia’s Black Sea fleet in the vicinity of Crimea. Moscow refutes many such claims, however, stating resolutely that Russian victory is at once inevitable and at hand.

While fighting near the Russian border has been a mainstay of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, attacks within Russia proper remain rare. The same cannot be said of internal violence, however. In October 2022, an insider attack carried out at a Russian military facility killed 11 people and injured 15 more.

FMI: http://en.kremlin.ru/