Russia claims it has destroyed Ukraine’s famous Yak-52 drone killer

Russia announced on Tuesday that it had destroyed a Ukrainian Yakovlev Yak-52 aircraft. The aircraft was used by the Kiev armed forces during the war to shoot down Russian drones.

“During the day, air defense systems shot down six American-made ATACMS tactical missiles, two French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, seven American-made HIMARS missiles, 28 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and one Ukrainian Yak-52 aircraft with a machine gun mount,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Both Russia and Ukraine are suffering significant losses of troops and equipment amid heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. Moscow launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10, capturing several villages on Ukraine’s northeastern border, but those efforts have since slowed.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not provide any information about the crash site of the Ukrainian Yak-52 aircraft. Newsweek has asked the Russian and Ukrainian authorities for comment via email.

The pro-war Telegram channel Russian Military Informant said on Tuesday that a Russian missile attack may have hit a facility in Ukraine’s southwestern Odessa region that houses a Yak-52 used by the Kiev military to intercept enemy spy drones.

Earlier this month, a Russian military blogger described how Ukraine used the planes to shoot at drones.

“No, this is not footage from World War II, nor from the game ‘IL-2 Sturmovik’, nor are they even scenes from the new ‘Top Gun’ movie with Tom Cruise… this is just the enemy, represented by the Ukrainian Air Force, appearing in our drone’s viewfinder on a two-seat, single-engine Yak-52 training sports aircraft, which they use either as an interceptor or as a mobile anti-aircraft platform,” the military blogger wrote on Telegram.

“How are they using it? The second person on the plane is a Ukrainian with a double-barreled shotgun who is shooting at our drone as if it were a shooting gallery. As ridiculous as it sounds, in the direction of Kherson the enemy has already shot down two drones,” the channel said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said in its update on Tuesday that its military had so far destroyed 628 Ukrainian aircraft, 277 helicopters, 27,650 drones, 552 anti-aircraft missile systems, 16,594 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,378 multiple rocket launchers, 11,982 field artillery guns and mortars, and 23,739 units of special military vehicles.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which publishes figures on Russia’s troop and equipment losses as part of its daily war report, said Russia had lost 44 artillery systems in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 15,368.

Moscow has also lost 15,862 armored combat vehicles, 8,227 tanks, 20,680 vehicles and fuel tanks, 361 military jets, 326 helicopters and 28 warships in the ongoing war, the Kiev military said in its update on Tuesday.

Newsweek has not independently verified these figures.

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