The pilot of one of the Russian planes shot down over the Kherson region in December 2023 showed unique footage of the first minutes after the Patriot missile hit.
The archived video was released by Russian Telegram channels.
A Russian pilot filmed the crash of his own plane on his mobile phone after it was hit by an anti-aircraft missile while in the ejection seat.
They shot it down. Luckily it was above ground. They didn’t have time to do anything. They were leaving. [на ціль] “It’s high,” the pilot comments, noting that it all happened too quickly to perform an evasive maneuver.
OSINT analyst EjShahid verified the approximate landing site of the Russian pilot near the village of Krasny Yar in the Kherson region using a photo of the ground on video.
It was approximately at this location on December 22, 2023 that the Ukrainian Air Force struck Russian targets with anti-aircraft weapons, claiming to have shot down three Su-34 bombers at once.
The command of the Ukrainian Frontier Forces did not report the type of anti-aircraft system used. However, the crash site was located more than 70 km from the Ukrainian-controlled Dnieper coast, which may indicate the use of a long-range Patriot air defense system.
This information was partially confirmed by telegram channels close to the Russian military, reporting the crash of at least one plane and the death of the pilots.
At the same time, footage of the search and rescue operation was released, during which the pilot of one of the downed planes was evacuated.
It should be noted that the intercepted Su-34 bombers were actively used by the occupiers during that period to launch modified FAB-500 aerial bombs with UMPK modules at Ukrainian positions on the occupied left bank of the Dnieper.
However, after the successful ambush, the activity of Russian tactical aviation in this section of the front was sharply reduced, and the launch of aerial bombs ceased completely for a long time.
Source: Racurs
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