Ukraine has shot down a Russian Su-24M bomber jet in the Black Sea, Kyiv’s military has said, as Ukraine works to shield its southern coastline against Russian bombardment.
Ukraine “destroyed” the Russian jet around Snake Island, a Black Sea outpost around 30 miles from Ukraine’s coastline close to Romania, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday. The jet was attempting to strike Ukraine’s bombarded Odesa region, and was flying with an Su-30SM multirole fighter jet, the Ukrainian military added.
Ukraine’s southern command fired an anti-aircraft missile at the Su-24M, Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Kyiv’s air force, said in a statement posted to social media.
A Russian An-26 search-and-rescue aircraft was attempting to locate the Su-24M’s crew, Ukraine’s air force spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Russia has not publicly commented on Ukraine’s report. Newsweek has approached Moscow’s Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images
The Kremlin’s forces targeted Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, in the first hours of the invasion effort from February 24, 2022. But Ukrainian personnel stationed at the remote Black Sea outpost quickly became famous for an expletive-laden response to a Russian warship’s demands for surrender.
Clashes between Russian and Ukrainian troops around Snake Island hit the headlines again last June, when Ukraine reclaimed the outpost after Russia said it was retreating from the island as a gesture of “goodwill.”
Shortly before Ukraine reclaimed Snake Island, the head of Kyiv’s military intelligence agency, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, described the outpost as “strategically important” for civilian, trade and military objectives.
“Whoever controls the island can at any moment block the movement of civilian vessels in all directions to the south of Ukraine” and also attack western Ukraine, Budanov said in mid-May 2022.
Kyiv has now taken out 324 Russian aircraft in the 21 months of all-out war, according to figures from Ukraine’s military, although it is not possible to independently verify this figure.
Russia has frequently launched air strikes from the Black Sea, hitting the coastal port of Odesa’s civilian and grain-exporting infrastructure.
Ukraine’s Oleshchuk described the Russian Su-24M jet as joining the “Russian warship,” in an apparent reference to the sinking of Russia’s Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, in April 2022.
The Su-24, also referred to by its NATO reporting name, the Fencer, is a bomber aircraft made by the Moscow-based Sukhoi Design Bureau Joint Stock Company.
It is used by Russia’s air force, as well as militaries including Ukraine, Algeria and Iran.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.