Russian President Vladimir Putin is furious over Ukrainian precision strike on a military base deep inside Russian territory, in which at least one Su-57 fighter was downed.
This was revealed by the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Yusov, quoted by the UNIAN agency. Ukrainian intelligence said earlier that a base in the Astrakhan region, located 589 kilometers from the fighting line in Ukraine, had been hit.
Russia uses these aircraft to launch missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets. “Indeed, there is information about a possible defeat of two Su-57s, as well as about dead and wounded occupiers who were at the airport at that moment,”, Yusov said. One fighter was confirmed hit, but it is possible that as many as 2 were hit.
A representative of Ukrainian intelligence noted that there are up to a dozen Su-57 units in Russia. These are the most modern Russian fighters. Moscow claims they are fifth-generation, but aviation experts say they do not have the characteristics of a fifth-generation fighter.
Military-political analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko pointed out that the destruction of a Russian Su-57 fighter jet is a “reputational disgrace” for Russia. “You can talk for a long time about how the Su-57 does not correspond to the class of fifth-generation fighters, but in this case the technical side is not as important as the reputational side,” Kovalenko said.