Russia’s air defense systems accidentally shot down their own Su-30SM fighter jet over annexed Crimea while attempting to repel Ukrainian drone strikes overnight, Ukraine’s Navy said Friday.
Intercepted radio communications revealed that both engines of the aircraft caught fire and the crew ejected before the plane crashed in northwestern Crimea, the Ukrainian Navy said, citing its military intelligence.
“They were repelling Ukrainian attacks so actively that they ended up shooting down their own plane,” Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainian television.
Russian authorities have not commented on the reported friendly fire. Pro-war Telegram channels said the cause of the loss of an Su-30SM was unknown and noted that the crew had successfully ejected and were rescued.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, 38 of them over Crimea and the Black Sea.
Crimea’s Moscow-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov said Ukrainian drone attacks had damaged several electrical substations across the peninsula, causing temporary power outages. He did not mention the Su-30SM downing.
Ukrainian media, citing pro-Kyiv Crimean Telegram channels, reported that the drone attack may have hit a facility at the Gvardeyskoye air base of the Russian Aerospace Forces in central Crimea.
Navy spokesman Pletenchuk said a Russian oil depot caught fire in the overnight strikes.
The news outlet RBC Ukraine identified the target as the ATAN gas station network’s oil depot in the Hvardiiske (Gvardeyskoye) base.
The Russian military stores Iranian-designed Shahed drones that it uses for attacks on Ukraine at the base, according to the outlet.
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