Several Ukrainian fighter planes destroyed in attack on airfield: Moscow

Russia attacked an air base in central Ukraine and destroyed several Ukrainian fighter jets, Moscow said on Tuesday, releasing footage allegedly showing its air force attack on the facility.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a post on the messaging app Telegram that it had attacked the Ukrainian air base Myrhorod in the Poltava region, southwest of the Ukrainian border regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.

Moscow destroyed five of Ukraine’s operational Su-27 fighter jets and damaged two others that were repaired on site, the Russian government said.

Moscow released a short clip, allegedly recorded by a drone, showing the attack on the air base with at least one visible explosion. Newsweek could not independently verify this footage. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force declined to comment.

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management system appears to show a fire from the previous day at a location in Poltava that visually matches the base shown in the video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Both Russia and Ukraine have frequently targeted each other’s key air bases and vital, expensive assets, such as fighter jets.

Ukraine has used drones and missiles to attack Russian air bases deep inside its internationally recognized territory – including facilities where its heavy bombers are stationed – as well as its air bases spread across the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian Air Force, including the Myrhorod air base. Moscow struck infrastructure and damaged unspecified equipment at the air base in June 2023, local authorities said at the time. Russia also attacked the air base at the start of its large-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

Yuri Ignat, a former spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said in a social media post that Russia had attacked the Myrhorod air base, adding: “There are some losses, but not those claimed by the enemy.”

He said the Ukrainian Air Force “is doing everything to fight and mislead the enemy,” including using decoys. “This is a war, and unfortunately, there are losses of equipment,” Ignat added.

Several prominent Russian military bloggers, often used as sources of information on Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, said two Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets were destroyed and four others damaged.

Echoing the Ukrainian losses claimed by the Russian Defense Ministry, the influential Russian military broadcaster Fighterbomber described the attack as “the most effective attack on an airfield from our side” since the beginning of the invasion.

The first shipment of American F-16 fighter jets is expected to arrive in Ukraine this month. A senior Ukrainian commander said in June that Kyiv would store some of the donated aircraft at “secure air bases outside Ukraine so they are not targeted here.”