Ukraine’s Armed Forces Have Downed Three Russian Su-25 Jets in a Week: Kyiv

Ukraine’s Armed Forces have shot down three Russian Su-25 fighter jets in a week, a military official said on Monday.

Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian troops in the southern Tavria sector, made the remarks in a post on his Telegram channel. He said Ukraine’s Tavria operational-strategic group in the Donetsk region downed the aircraft.

The developments come five months into Ukraine’s long anticipated counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, and as clashes intensify in the battle for Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. Moscow is pushing what has been described by the head of the local military administration in Avdiivka, Vitaliy Barabash, as its largest offensive on the frontline eastern town.

“During the past 24 hours, the enemy launched 2 missile and 35 air strikes, conducted 47 combat engagements, and fired 906 artillery shells,” wrote Tarnavskyi on his Telegram channel.

“The total losses of the enemy amounted to 472 people. 36 units of enemy military equipment were destroyed. In particular, 4 [armored fighting vehicles] 8 artillery systems, 1 anti-aircraft vehicle, [an] Su-25 aircraft, 13 unmanned aerial vehicles, 6 units of automobiles and 1 – special equipment. The enemy’s ammunition depot was also destroyed,” Tarnavskyi said.

On October 10, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a post on social media that Ukrainian troops repelled counterattacks of the Russian troops in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts and downed a Russian Su-25 fighter jet.

Three days later, the General Staff said another Russian Su-25 fighter jet had been shot down.

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the losses, and has reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment via email.

The General Staff said in a situational update of the war on Tuesday that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Moscow has lost 318 aircraft, while 289,430 military personnel have been “liquidated,” including 800 in the past 24 hours.

Newsweek has not been able to independently verify Ukraine’s figures. Estimates of military casualties in the conflict vary widely, with figures provided by Ukraine usually outstripping those given by its Western allies. Russia rarely releases figures on its own troop losses, but when it does, its estimates are far lower than those of Ukraine.

Tarnavskyi’s Tavria operational-strategic group is currently conducting operations in the vicinities of settlements of the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region.

The town has been the target of Russian aggression since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the southern Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk started clashing with Kyiv’s forces.

Avdiivka head Barabash has said Russia’s push in Avdiivka beginning October 10 is “perhaps the largest Russian offensive on the city” since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine that Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction on Monday and recently made some gains, albeit at a relatively slower pace than in the initial attacks.

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