A RUSSIAN fighter jet has been shot down by its own side in a botched friendly fire incident, according to reports.
It comes days after a Russian pilot nearly died in an embarrassing friendly fire near miss as the latest humiliation in Putin’s failing war against Ukraine.
It comes days after an embarrassing friendly fire near miss
East2WestRussian Su-25 plane (stock)[/caption]
Ukraine’s air force commander said he could “confidently” say the aircraft was taken out by Russian forces.
The Su-25 jet is suspected to have been downed by a Russian Buk-M3 surface to air missile system.
Early Russian reports triumphantly said a Ukrainian attack Su-25 had been hit.
But Ukrainian General Mykola Oleshchuk said: “I can confidently say that it was not Ukrainian air defence that shot down the Russian Su-25 attack aircraft.
“These were clear and coordinated actions of Russian anti-aircraft gunners, for which many thanks from the entire Ukrainian people.”
Russian reports later claimed that the plane had crashed while flying low in poor visibility.
The botched attack reportedly happened near Yelyzavetivka, in the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine.
It follows the extraordinary incident when shocking footage caught a Russian fighter pilot barely escaping death after a rocket launcher was fired into the sky as an Su-25 warplane flew overhead.
Miraculously, the plane was not hit in the dramatic ambush.
Russia has suffered a succession of embarrassing friendly fire nightmares during Putin’s costly war against Ukraine.
In another recent known case, Russian Major-General Vladimir Zavadsky, 45, was killed by one of his own landmines after being shot at with friendly mortar fire while driving a military vehicle captured from the Ukrainians.
In a separate incident, a Russian Su-34 bomber was damaged in a kamikaze drone strike on a military airfield in Rostov region, which borders Ukraine.
Video showed the drone attack on Morozovsk.
Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels showed pictures of the shrapnel-damaged warplane belonging to Vladimir Putin’s 559th Guards Bomber Guards Regiment.
East2WestA Russian pilot nearly died just days ago in another friendly fire near miss[/caption]