Russian forces reportedly hit one of their own fighter planes with a missile over Ukraine (Picture: East2West News)
A Russian fighter jet has reportedly been shot down in a friendly fire incident over Ukraine.
One of Vladimir Putin’s £82million supersonic Su-35 warplanes is suspected to have been downed by a Russian S-300 air defence system on Thursday night.
Footage shows an aircraft being hit by a missile before exploding above Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhia region.
An orange ball of flames and trail of smoke can be seen in the sky behind the jet as it plunges towards the ground.
Pro-war channels acknowledged the incident involved the plane, which has a one-pilot cockpit.
Russian aviation Z-blogger Fighterbomber published a photo of a Su-35 with the message: ‘Eternal flight, brother.’
This post was effectively seen as acknowledging the loss of the plane at the hands of its own troops.
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There is yet to be official confirmation from Russian authorities, however, Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind posted: ‘Russian air defence vs Russian Su-35 1:0.
‘Russian soldiers used an S-300 missile to shoot down their own plane near Tokmak.
‘Work, brothers! Do not stop!’
The blue on blue strike, if confirmed, comes as the latest setback for Putin after his forces have been hit by a succession of strikes by Ukraine.
An image of the Su-35 jet which is understood to have been downed on Thursday night by Russian air defences (Picture: AP)
Among those attacks was the missile strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last week.
At least 34 were killed and more than 100 said to be injured, with senior Russian commanders understood to be among the dead.
Russia has lost approximately 90 planes since the start of the war against Ukraine, an assessment by the British MoD said ahead of the latest incident.
The ‘viability’ of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ (VKS) long-term tactical air power is likely to degrade as the war goes on, said the MoD.
A Russian aviation vlogger shared a picture of the Su-35 jet with the message: ‘Eternal flight, brother’ (Picture: East2west News)
A report said: ‘The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) have lost approximately 90 fixed-wing aircraft in combat since February 2022.
‘It has also been flying some of its combat aircraft types far more intensively than in peace time.’
Ukraine shot down 26 drones earlier this week as Russia targeted ports in overnight attacks of their own.
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