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On February 10, Antonov An-124-100M named "Be
brave like Okhtyrka" landed at Harrisburg International
Airport in Pennsylvania. The aircraft with registration
UR-82008 belongs to Antonov Airlines. It brought
two M142 HIMARS rocket launchers for repair to the
USA. One of them likely had its right front wheel torn
off by a mine explosion and damaged the lower part
of the cabin. The other one has at least 16 shrapnel
impacts in the cabin, both front windows cracked,
and both front tires damaged. These are the first two
demonstrably damaged HIMARS out of 39 delivered.
March 2023
During this period, Poland and Slovakia
delivered MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Warsaw provided at least four aircraft in March,
with another 10 scheduled to be delivered the
following month. Slovakia provided 13 units,
three of which were without engines and
suitable only as a source of spare parts. Only
four out of the remaining ten aircraft flew to
Ukraine under their own power (numbers 2123,
6124, and 6627 in gray-green camouflage and
0921 in digital camouflage). The flight from
Sliač took place on March 23rd. The remaining
aircraft were transported by ground.
A serious incident between Russian and
Western armed forces occurred on March
14th. Two Russian Su-27 fighters attacked an
American MQ-9 Reaper drone in international
airspace over the Black Sea and caused it to
crash by hitting its propeller.
April 2023
Kyiv became the target of rocket shelling
again on April 28th after 51 days of peace. This
happened on the day when the Slovak President
Zuzana Čaputová and the Czech President Petr
Pavel were visiting the Ukrainian capital. Both
had to take cover in an air raid shelter.
In addition to Ukraine, Russia also
bombed its own territory when on April 20th,
a Su-34 mistakenly dropped bombs on the city
of Belgorod.
Ukrainian drones attacked the fuel depot of
the Black Sea Fleet in the city of Sevastopol
on April 29th, destroying approximately half of
the tanks.
May 2023
At the end of the previous month, two
Patriot system batteries arrived in Ukraine
and were involved in the defense of the capital
from the beginning of May. The first Russian
"undestructible" missile Ch-47M2 Kinzhal was
shot down on May 4th in the early morning
over Kyiv. The Russians tried to overwhelm
the Patriot with a large number of missiles to
destroy it. In such a mass attack on May 16th,
Ukrainians shot down another six Kinzhals.
Ukrainians also used the Patriot defensively,
and on May 13th, they set a trap for a Russian
group flying to bomb the Ukrainian Chernihiv
region with gliding bombs. However, the whole
group was shot down on their side of the border,
in the Russian Bryansk region. It included
one Su-34, one Su-35, and at least two Mi-8
helicopters modified for electronic warfare.
Such losses were admitted by the Russians
themselves. According to the Ukrainians,
another Mi-8 helicopter was shot down -
a total of five aircraft at once.
In May, there was also the first use of
Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets showcasing blue-yellow paint on their underside.
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27
April 2024