Ukraine said Sunday that its forces shot down an ultramodern Russian warplane stationed at an air base approximately 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the battle lines.
Kyiv’s main military intelligence organization released satellite photographs depicting the aftermath of the attack. If confirmed, it would be Ukraine’s first known successful hit on a twin-engine Su-57 stealth jet, widely regarded as Moscow’s most advanced fighter aircraft.
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One photograph shows black soot stains and small craters on a concrete strip surrounding the parked aircraft. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the hit occurred on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk base in southern Russia, around 589 kilometers (366 miles) from the front line.
According to the Ukrainian source, the plane, which can carry stealth missiles for hundreds of kilometers (miles), is one of “a countable few” of its kind in Moscow’s inventory. Russian media sources report that Moscow’s air force procured “more than 10” new Su-57s last year and has placed an order for a total of 76 deliveries by 2028.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, stated hours later on Ukrainian TV that the attack may have destroyed two Su-57 jets parked at the base and injured Russian soldiers. He did not immediately provide any evidence to back up the assertion.
Ilya Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, told Ukrainian media in April that Moscow was attempting to keep its Su-57 fleet “at a safe distance” from Ukrainian weaponry.
The strike comes after the US and Germany recently approved Ukraine to use the long-range missiles they are providing to Kyiv to strike some targets on Russian land. Under President Joe Biden’s recently authorized directive, Ukraine has already used US weapons to attack inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
However, the distance between the airstrip and Ukraine, as well as unofficial Russian statements, suggest that Ukrainian-made drones are being used. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago, Ukraine has increased domestic drone production and deployed the weapons to attack far within Russia. In January, drones struck a gas terminal near St. Petersburg, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of the border.
Three Ukrainian drones allegedly targeted the Akhtubinsk airport on Saturday, damaging the jet with flying shrapnel, according to a popular pro-Kremlin Telegram group thought to be under the control of a retired Russian army pilot.
We are currently determining whether we can restore it or not. If not, it would be the first Su-57 combat loss in history, according to the Fighterbomber channel.
Aleksandr Kharchenko, a military correspondent for Russia’s state-run RIA news agency, criticized Moscow for failing to build hangars to safeguard its planes in a Telegram post on Sunday. However, the post did not openly acknowledge the strike.
Russia’s so-called “military bloggers,” like Fighterbomber, often serve as sources of information on military losses in the absence of an official Kremlin statement. Russia’s Defense Ministry and senior political authorities did not respond Sunday.
The ministry stated on Saturday that its forces had downed three Ukrainian drones in the Astrakhan area, which includes the Akhtubinsk airport. On the same day, Astrakhan’s governor, Igor Babushkin, reported that Ukraine attempted to hit an undisclosed facility but was unsuccessful.
Instead of flying over Ukraine, Russia has been deploying its Su-57 aircraft to launch long-range missiles across the border. According to a U.K. Ministry of Defence intelligence briefing from last year, Russia is most likely attempting to avoid “reputational damage, reduced export prospects, and the compromise of sensitive technology” that would result from losing any Su-57 jets in enemy territory.
Meanwhile, local Russian officials said that Ukrainian forces continued to launch drone attacks on Russia’s southern border districts.
Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said three drones struck Belgorod province late Saturday, breaking a power line and blowing out windows but suffering no injuries. The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that they shot down another five drones and a Ukrainian-made missile over the region.
According to an update from Pepel (Ashes), a station run by Belgorod journalists now based outside Russia, Ukrainian drones struck an ammo stockpile near the town of Rakitnoye on Sunday afternoon, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Ukraine. Social media footage showed massive clouds of smoke rising into the sky. One video captures a woman asking, “I wonder if soldiers lived there?”
Gladkov, the governor, declined to comment directly on the allegations but stated that a fire had broken out in a “non-residential building” near Rakitnoye. He claimed no one was wounded.
According to regional officials, Russian shelling killed at least three civilians and injured at least nine others in Ukraine’s frontline districts on Saturday and overnight.
Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported that in the village of Khotimlya, east of Kharkiv, a man died and two women sustained injuries. According to Syniehubov, the shelling also caused damage to the local school, a municipal building, a business, and private dwellings.
Heavy clashes resumed in the area as the Ukrainian military attempted to repel Russia’s invading forces following a weeks-long assault by Moscow that raised concerns about Kharkiv, which is only 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Russian border, and prompted a wave of civilian evacuations.
Russia’s coordinated new onslaught has focused on Kharkiv but appears to be testing Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk further south, as well as initiating incursions into the northern Sumy and Chernihiv districts.
Lifting restrictions on the use of Western weapons will aid Ukraine’s defense of Kharkiv by targeting Russian capabilities over the border, according to Ukrainian and Western officials. It is unclear what additional impact it will have on the war’s trajectory at this critical juncture.
Moscow reacted angrily, saying that the measure could lead NATO into a confrontation with Russia. But Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, called it “common sense.”
“What was happening up around Kharkiv… was a Russian offensive where they were moving from one side of the border directly to the other side of the border, and it simply didn’t make sense not to allow the Ukrainians to fire across that border, to hit Russian guns and emplacements that were firing at them,” Sullivan stated on Sunday while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
