Ukraine Destroys Russian Su-25 Jet

Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian Su-25 fighter jet in the eastern part of the country, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said Friday.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the ministry said that the aircraft had been shot down in the Donetsk region, where troops have been under fierce attack from Russian forces in recent months.

"Good job, warriors!" the post said.

Newsweek has contacted both the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.

The Ukrainian report comes after officials there claimed earlier in the week that Russia had lost 12 tanks, 51 artillery systems and 71 vehicles in the space of 24 hours.

Russia doesn't publish its military losses, and military analysts are skeptical of reports released by both Ukraine and Russia.

The Sukhoi Su-25, a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet, is designed for close air support of ground forces. It first flew in 1975 and entered service in 1981.

It has been used in numerous conflicts, including the Soviet-Afghan War, Iran-Iraq War, and 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

More than 1,000 units were built before production ended in 2017. The aircraft remains in service with several countries' air forces.

On Saturday, Newsweek reported that at least eight people were killed in Russian missile attacks across Ukraine as Kyiv awaited the arrival of a crucial air defense system from its allies.

Footage shared on X over the weekend by OSINT Aggregator, an account that compiles open-source intelligence, purportedly showed a Russian ammunition warehouse being hit by a Ukrainian strike. Newsweek was unable to independently verify the video.

A dashcam recording from Ukraine shared on social media last week appeared to show the obliteration of an ammo truck as it exploded in the contested region of Luhansk.

In the video, a massive fireball is ejected upward into the air as the truck explodes. The vehicle's wreckage is then seen strewn around a smoking crater, as fires burn on the side of the road.

Census data suggests that the mortality rate of young Russian men nearly doubled last year when compared to 2022, according to a report by independent Russian news outlet Meduza.

The data, released Thursday, indicated that at least 64,000 Russians have lost their lives in the conflict so far.

Earlier in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a rare statement in which he claimed Ukrainian losses were several times that of Russia, though he provided no evidence of this at the time.

He was quoted by the state-run Tass news agency to have said: "I can tell you that our losses, particularly irretrievable losses, are certainly smaller than those of the opposite party."

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