Russian Su-34 Strike Fighter Downed As Battles Rage Over Eastern Ukraine

A Russian Air Force Su-34 strike fighter was shot down over Eastern Ukraine on March 3, with sources disputing whether it was downed by Ukrainian surface to air missile systems or by friendly fire from the Russian side. The Su-34 is an armoured very long ranged fighter optimised to air to ground missions, and with a secondary close air support role, and has often been deployed to drop gravity bombs flying close to Ukrainian lines due in part to shortages of beyond visual range air to ground weapons. The class has been acquired in larger numbers by the Russian Air Force than any other fighter, with an enhanced variant the Su-34M reported to have begun entering service from 2022 incorporating some of the lessons learned by the original Su-34’s extensive combat record in Ukraine.

Su-34s took significant losses in the early stages of the Russian-Ukrainian War, but the Russian Air Force has seen very few of its assets neutralised in recent months. The Ukrainian Air Force, which claimed to have shot down the Russian aircraft with an S-300 mobile air defence system, thus commented: "One of the pilots died, the second is preparing to keep him company. It's been a long time since the anti-aircraft fighters of the Air Force were pleased with such a shot down target!" Ukraine has seen its quantities of longe ranged surface to air missiles diminish sharply, often expended against lower end targets such as drones and cruise missiles, but continues to deploy vast quantities of very short ranged handheld missile systems which have posed much greater threats to Russian aircraft due to their numbers and lack of radar signatures. The shootdown occurred near the city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces have reportedly taken tremendous losses on the ground. The Russian Air Force has had a very limited combat role in the area, and has instead relied heavily on artillery to compensate for its much more limited numbers against Ukraine’s conscript based mass mobilisation force.