Blow to Putin as Ukraine says it has shot down three more Russian warplanes

Ukrainian military claims Russia lost six warplanes in three days

A Russian Su-34 bomber jet lands at the Kubinka airfield near Moscow (AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine’s military has said it has shot down three more Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers, the latest successes it has reported against Moscow’s air force.

“After successful combat operations against an enemy aircraft in the night on Feb. 29, two more Russian aircraft were destroyed: Su-34 fighter-bombers in the Avdiivka and Mariupol sectors,” Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, did not immediately comment on Syrskyi’s remarks.

Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine fell to Russian forces this month after a long battle. Russia took full control of the southeastern port city of Mariupol in May 2022.

The Ukrainian military said last week that Russia had lost six warplanes in three days.

Since receiving advanced Western air defence systems, Ukraine’s military has posed a greater threat to Russian aviation in areas near the front lines although it has suffered recent setbacks on the eastern battlefields.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of hitting civilian targets using Su-34s, in particular in the southern Kherson region, as well as in attacking Ukraine’s front lines.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual address to the Federal Assembly, in Moscow, Russia, February 29, 2024 (via REUTERS)

Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians although many have been killed in its strikes.

With the war starting its third year, Russian forces have been bludgeoning some Ukrainian defensive positions into submission, deploying overwhelming amounts of artillery and troop numbers in an effort to punch through defensive lines at targeted points.

Though Russia’s gains have been small, slow and costly, Ukraine doesn’t have enough reservists and has a severe shortage of artillery shells as the supply of military aid from Western partners has waned.

A view of the yard of hospital which was damaged by Russian shelling is seen from a broken window in Krasnohorivka, Ukraine (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Russian army is trying to seize the towns and villages of Tonenke, Orlivka, Semenivka, Berdychi and Krasnohorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine‘s army chief Col. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said on social media.

Those are places where Ukrainian military officials had said they would form a new line of defense after Ukrainian troops pulled out of Avdiivka on Feb. 17.

In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces are focusing on retaking Verbove and Robotyne, towns that Ukraine won back in last summer’s counteroffensive in 2023, Syrskyi said.

Syrskyi, who was appointed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to lead the country’s military accused some of his commanders of making “miscalculations” in assessing the enemy and taking countermeasures.