A still from a video shared by Ukraine’s armed forced purportedly showing a crashed Russian SU-34 fighter jet on April 3, 2022.
Ukraine general staff/Facebook
- Ukraine’s military says its air defenses shot down a Russian SU-34 fighter jet near Kharkiv.
- The general staff published a video showing the fireball plummeting from the sky on Sunday.
- The SU-34, Russia’s newest fighter jet which cost $36 million each, has underperformed in the war.
Ukraine published video footage and audio of which it says shows its military shooting down an Sukhoi-34 fighter jet.
Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces posted a video to Facebook showing a large burning object plummeting from the sky near the city of Kharkiv on Sunday.
“Anti-aircraft missile forces of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down another Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber in Kharkiv region,” it said in a note describing the video.
The SU-34, which Russian state media said costs $36 million per unit, is Russia’s newest fighter jet, but it has fallen far short of its promise during the Ukraine conflict.
In the Facebook post, the general staff also posted an audio recording of what is said it was intercepted Russian military communications.
“Who did they hit? Who did they hit?,” a Russian speaker can be heard asking. The voice asks several times for a response from “10th,” perhaps a military call sign.
Another Russian speaker is heard saying: “We’re leaving, we’re leaving”
“It’s on fire, it’s on fire, totally on fire… fuck,” the voice later says.
Ukrainian authorities say the armed forces have shot down a number of Su-34s, including on March 27.
Insider could not immediately find corroborating evidence of an Su-34 being shot down near Kharkiv. The open-court Ukraine Weapons Tracker twitter account posted an image on April 3 of a different type of Sukhoi jet shot down in the Kharkiv region.
—🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 3, 2022
Kharkiv has been one of the hardest-hit cities in Russia’s invasion ok Ukraine, and is still partially surrounded by Russian forces.
Russia has withdrawn from other parts of Ukraine in recent days, particularly in the suburbs around the capital of Kyiv. Intelligence officials and the Ukrainian government says its expects Russia to change its approach, focusing its attacks on the east of the country in the Donbas region.
There is mounting evidence suggesting that Russian troops committed mass killings in areas that were under their control, including the killing of 300 civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
Speaking on Monday, President Joe Biden called for a war crimes trial against President Vladimir Putin as a result of the events in Bucha.
“He is a war criminal,” Biden said of Putin, “but we have to gather the information.”
Read the original article on Business Insider 
