Russians celebrate shooting down a jet before realising it was one of their own

Russian troops celebrated shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet – only to realise it was one of their own planes.

The Su-25 jet is suspected to have been shot down by a Buk-M3 surface to air missile system – and initial Russian reports celebrated hitting a Ukrainian plane.

But Ukraine’s air force commander has insisted it was instead a Russian plane that was downed – by its own side.

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, some of which claimed the incident happened near Yelyzavetivka in the Mykolaiv region, later backtracked and claimed the plane had crashed while flying low in poor visibility.

The friendly fire claim follows another extraordinary recent incident when footage caught a Russian Su-25 fighter almost downed by sustained fire from a Grad multiple rocket launcher.

Miraculously, the plane was not hit in the dramatic sequence.

Russia has suffered a succession of friendly fire nightmares during Putin’s war against Ukraine.

In the most recent known case, Major-General Vladimir Zavadsky, 45, of Russia’s 14th Army Corps, was killed by one of his own landmines after being shot at with friendly mortar fire when he drove 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.

Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels showed pictures of the shrapnel-damaged warplane belonging to Vladimir Putin’s 559th Guards Bomber Guards Regiment.

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