Strana 30
On Wednesday, July 8, a Su-35S fighter
was shot down. It crashed near the village of
Mistky in the occupied Luhansk region. The
pilot ejected and was recovered by a rescue
team. According to available information, the
pilot had fallen into a trap set by the Ukrainian
Air Force.
The Russian side wrote that this particular
pilot had been annoying the Ukrainians for
some time, and they therefore specifically
targeted him. One Ukrainian aircraft simulated
an attack using glide bombs, while two other
F-16 fighters waited for a Russian target to
appear. A radar from a Patriot system helped
them locate it.
Initially, different sources gave conflicting
accounts. According to some reports, the
Russian Sukhoi had not been shot down by
Ukrainian fighters at all, but by the Patriot
system. However, U.S. Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine later confirmed that
the shootdown was achieved by a Ukrainian
F-16 fighter. This is the first confirmed aerial
victory for an F-16 in Ukrainian service.
The first Russian aircraft loss of the
period under review had occurred as early
as Thursday, July 2, when a Kamov Ka-52M
helicopter was shot down. The helicopter was
countering a Ukrainian drone attack when
it was accidentally hit by a Russian soldier
using a Verba man-portable missile. The
crew ejected, but one of the ejection seats
malfunctioned, killing Lieutenant Danil Trunov.
The second crew member survived and was
rescued.
At roughly the same time, on July 1 and July
3, Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, carried
out repeated drone attacks on Saky airfield in
occupied Crimea. Six aircraft shelters were hit,
although it is not known what was inside them.
The SBU claimed that it destroyed or damaged
seven Su-30, Su-30SM, and Su-24 aircraft.
A video was later published showing an
attack on a Russian Navy Su-24M at Saky
airfield. In this case, however, the aircraft was
a decommissioned airframe that had been
serving as a decoy in an open area.
On Wednesday, July 8, the Ukrainian Armed
Forces used drones to attack Borisoglebsk
airfield in Russia’s Voronezh region. A fuel
storage facility was destroyed in the attack.
On Wednesday, July 15, the Russian Air Force
sent a Mi-28N helicopter to hunt Ukrainian
drones in the Belgorod region. The hunter
became the hunted, however, when a Ukrainian
FPV drone attacked it from behind near the
village of Vyazove. The Ukrainians claimed
that the helicopter had been shot down, while
the Russians claimed that it had suffered no
damage whatsoever. The truth was somewhere
in between: the helicopter was damaged but
did not crash.
The following day, Thursday, July 16,
a Russian air base, Engels-2 in Saratov region,
became the target of Ukrainian long-range
drones. Russian strategic bombers take off
from this base to launch cruise missiles
against Ukrainian cities. And one of these
bombers will never launch its missiles again.
A Tu-95MS was destroyed in the attack, and
satellite imagery showed that it had lost the
entire rear section of its fuselage behind the
wings.
On Tuesday, July 21, Ukrainian drones
attacked the Russian Kursk air base.
A MiG-29 was hit, although it was
a decommissioned aircraft—one of a pair that
had been parked at that location since the
beginning of 2024 (and had apparently spent
a long time parked elsewhere before that).
The next losses occurred in accidents.
On Thursday, July 23, Russia’s newest fighter,
the Sukhoi Su-57, crashed near Odintsovo,
a suburb of Moscow. It happened during
a training flight, and the aircraft was not
carrying any weapons. The pilot successfully
ejected before the aircraft crashed.
A bizarre theory later emerged claiming that
Ukrainian hackers had convinced a Russian
air-defense unit that the aircraft was an enemy
aircraft, causing the unit to shoot it down.
During training on Monday, July 27, an
Aero L-39C Albatros from the 797th Training
Regiment also crashed. The aircraft was
A Su-35S burning on the ground after being
shot down by a Ukrainian F-16.
A crater left by the impact of a Russian
missile in Poland.
A Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian Su-24M at Saky
airbase. It was a decommissioned aircraft that was
being used as a decoy.
A Ukrainian FPV drone attacking a Russian
Mi-28N helicopter.
A Tu-95MS destroyed at Engels-2 airbase.
A fire at the Russian Borisoglebsk airfield.
AIR WAR IN UKRAINE
INFO Eduard30
September 2026