Ukraine destroys Russian fighter jet with missile from sea drone in world first, says Kyiv military
Ukraine destroyed a Russian Su-30 fighter jet using a missile fired from a seaborne drone, Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said on Saturday, in what it said was the world's first downing of a combat plane by a maritime drone.
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Its statement on social media said the fighter had been shot down by a military intelligence unit called Group 13 on Friday over waters near Novorossiysk, a major Russian port city on the Black Sea.
Outmanned and outgunned by its larger, wealthier Russian adversary, Ukraine has turned to drone warfare in the air and at sea as a way to fight back throughout the three years of full-scale war.
Ukraine's seaborne drones, which are much cheaper and smaller than conventional ships, have wrought havoc on Russia's Black Sea fleet.
Ukraine has previously said it shot down a Russian military helicopter in December 2024 using a missile fired from the same type of seaborne drone.
A view from the cockpit of a Russian Su-30 fighter jet during a training mission in January 2022. Photo: AP
On Friday the Russian Su-30 jet was hit by a missile and crashed into the sea near the naval port of Novorossiysk, Ukrainian military intelligence said on Saturday, publishing a video of the alleged launch over the Black Sea.
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Asia Times
6 hours ago
- Asia Times
Ukraine in a bind as Russia moves into Dnipropetrovsk
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday (June 8) that its forces had entered Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Region, which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's buffer zone plan. This was foreseen as early as late August once the Battle of Pokrovsk began, but has been achieved even without capturing that strategic fortress town. Russian forces simply went around it after breaking through the southern Donbass front. This development puts Ukraine in a dilemma. It will now have to simultaneously fortify the Dnipropetrovsk front together with the northern Kharkov and southern Zaporozhye ones to guard against Russia using its new position to launch offensives into any of those three. This could put serious strain on the Ukrainian Armed Forces as they are already struggling to prevent a major breakthrough in the Sumy Region from Kursk. Coupled with a depletion of manpower and questions about continued US military-intelligence aid, this might be enough to collapse the frontlines. To be sure, that scenario has been bandied about many times since the invasion, but it now appears closer than ever. Observers also shouldn't forget that Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump that he would respond to Ukraine's strategic drone strikes on Russia's strategic nuclear forces earlier this month, which could combine with the abovementioned two factors to achieve this long-desired breakthrough. Of course, the retaliation might just be a symbolic demonstration of force, but it could also be something more significant. Ukraine's best chance of preventing this is for the US to either get Russia to agree to freeze the frontlines or to go on another offensive. A frontline freeze could be achieved through a carrot-and-stick approach, proposing a better resource-centric strategic partnership in exchange for the US imposing crippling secondary sanctions on Russia's energy clients (specifically China and India, with likely waivers for the EU). Alternatively, the US could double down on military-intelligence aid if Russia still refuses. As for launching a new offensive, the 120,000 troops that Ukraine has assembled along the Belarusian border, according to President Alexander Lukashenko last summer, could either cross that frontier and/or one of Russia's internationally recognized frontiers. However, both possibilities stand only a slim chance of success: Russia has made it clear that it must achieve more of its goals in the conflict before agreeing to any ceasefire, while its success in pushing Ukraine out of Kursk bodes ill for other invasions. The likelihood of Ukraine cutting its losses by agreeing to more of Russia's demands for peace is nil. Therefore, it might inevitably opt, whether in lieu of the scenarios mentioned above or in parallel with one or both of them, to intensify its 'unconventional operations' against Russia. These refer to assassinations, strategic drone strikes and terrorism. All that will do, however, is provoke more (probably outsized) conventional retaliation from Russia and thus more pain on a Ukraine already poised for defeat. With an eye toward the endgame, it appears as though an inflection point has or is about to be reached in the sense of irreversibly shifting the military-strategic dynamics in Russia's favor. It's very difficult to imagine how Ukraine can extricate itself from this dilemma, although the conflict has already surprised observers on both sides before, so it cannot be entirely ruled out. But it's a far-fetched scenario while Ukraine's defeat increasingly seems imminent. This article was first published on Andrew Korybko's Substack and is republished with kind permission. Become an Andrew Korybko Newsletter subscriber here.
Asia Times
a day ago
- Asia Times
Russia's war on Ukrainian children
As Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds well into its fourth year, children remain among the war's most vulnerable victims. Ballistic missiles have struck homes, schools, hospitals, and playgrounds. Russia is not only targeting children with missiles, it aims to militarize Ukrainian children on the occupied territories to prepare them for a future war with the West. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called attention to what he describes as the deliberate targeting of children. 'It is wrong and dangerous to keep silent about the fact that it is Russia that is killing children with ballistic missiles,' he said. Twelve people were killed and 90 civilians – including six children – were injured in a large-scale Russian missile and drone strike on Kyiv on April 24. US President Donald Trump even recently asked his advisers if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin 'has changed since Trump's last time in office, and expressed surprise at some of Putin's military moves, including bombing areas with children.' The attack came just weeks after a devastating April 4 strike on the city of Kryvyi Rih where a Russian cluster-armed Iskander-M ballistic missile hit the city of Kryvyi Rih killing 18 people, including nine children, and wounding over 40 others. One of the youngest victims was just three months old. The attack was a brutal reminder of Russia's continued terror tactics, such as the July 2024 strike on Kyiv's Okhmatdyt children's hospital, a facility filled with young cancer patients. Ruslan, call sign ' a commander in Ukraine's 23rd Brigade, said Russia systematically targets civilians. 'Hospitals, residential buildings, and shopping centers are struck, yet Russian media claims they're hitting military facilities.' Peter Gelpi, an American volunteer in Ukraine since 2022, said he has been targeted despite driving vehicles clearly marked as 'humanitarian' and 'volunteer.' 'Each strike was extremely accurate,' he said. 'These can't be mistakes.' Between April 1 and April 24 alone, Russian strikes killed 151 people and injured 697 others, according to the UN – a 46% increase in civilian casualties from the same period last year. Russia's war on children extends beyond missile strikes. It has forcibly deported more than 19,000 children to Russia. These actions have drawn accusations of genocide. During the 1932–1933 Holodomor (death by hunger), children were among the most vulnerable and targeted victims of the Soviet-engineered famine in Ukraine. The Soviet government starved millions of Ukrainians to death. Despite their parents' desperate efforts to protect them, millions of children starved, with historians estimating between 1.5 to 4 million child deaths. 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Family relations extended beyond the modern concept of a nuclear family, and during the Holodomor, as well as during the campaign against peasants considered wealthy, called kulaks, starting in the 1920s, entire 'households' were subjected to repression. 'Even very young children were labeled enemies of the Soviet state and deported with their families, many dying en route or becoming orphans,' said Kuzovova. Teenagers were arrested for failing to meet grain quotas and starved to death in prisons and penal colonies. Children whose parents had been arrested were often left on the streets without care, and those placed in shelters perished due to a lack of food. 'It is believed,' Kuzovova noted, 'that the most numerous victims of the Holodomor were children under the age of four, due to their mothers' loss of lactation and the absence of age-appropriate food.' 'Even very young children were labeled enemies and deported with their families,' she said. 'Children starved in shelters, prisons, and streets.' The most common victims, she noted, were children under four. The psychological toll on today's children is immense. Yuliia Matvievieva of the Volia Fund said reports show rising rates of anxiety, sleep disorders, PTSD, and depression. Displacement, broken family ties, constant danger, and emotionally unavailable caregivers are all contributing factors. 'Children retreat into the internet,' said Alina Holovko, coordinator at Dobra Sprava. 'They live under chronic stress, fear of death, and psychological overload.' She noted that schools need bomb shelters and spaces for group activities. 'In-person schooling would solve many psychological issues,' she said. Sophia Yushchenko, co-founder of Code for Ukraine, said children will face lifelong consequences. 'Education is disrupted, families are broken, and their sense of safety is gone,' she said. She divided the crisis into three groups. First, children in free territories who have suffered physically and emotionally. Second, those abroad who may never return. Third, those in occupied zones taken to reeducation camps or adopted into Russian families. The UN has hesitated to call this genocide, but Yushchenko pointed to the Genocide Convention's clause on forcibly transferring children. 'That's exactly what's happening,' she said. She added that Russian troops often bring textbooks, destroy Ukrainian literature and churches, and install pro-Russia curriculum. 'They replace identity with militarism,' she said. Since 2014, Russia has promoted 'patriotic education' in occupied Ukraine. After 2022, those efforts accelerated. Groups like Yunarmia indoctrinate children with military ideology. Some members have gone on to fight against Ukraine. On May 9, children in red berets marched through Red Square in Moscow, not to celebrate peace, but as part of Russia's growing militarized youth corps, Yunarmiya. Russia also seems to be using children's summer camps in occupied Crimea as human shields to deter Ukrainian strikes, violating international humanitarian law by placing military assets near civilian areas. During the Istanbul talks in early June, Russia's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, reportedly mocked Ukraine's demand to return deported children, dismissing it as 'a show for childless European grandmothers.' The UN reports over 2,500 Ukrainian children killed or injured since the full-scale invasion. These are not isolated tragedies, but the result of a systematic campaign to terrorize civilians and break Ukraine's resolve. It echoes the brutal tactics of the 1930s, when Moscow deliberately starved millions of Ukrainians during the Holodomor to crush their aspirations for independence. Then, as now, Russia seeks to subjugate Ukraine by targeting its most vulnerable. An associate research fellow of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think tank, David Kirichenko is a Ukrainian-American freelance journalist, activist and security engineer who, multiple times during the Ukraine War, has traveled to and worked in the areas being fought over. He can be found on the social media platform X @DVKirichenko
RTHK
2 days ago
- RTHK
Russia says pushing offensive further into Ukraine
Russia says pushing offensive further into Ukraine A road sign marks the entrance to the Dnipropetrovsk region. Photo: AFP Russia said on Sunday it was pushing into Ukraine's eastern industrial Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its three-year offensive – a significant territorial escalation amid stalled peace talks. Moscow, which has the initiative on the battlefield, has repeatedly refused calls by Ukraine, Europe and US President Donald Trump for a full and unconditional ceasefire. At talks in Istanbul last week it demanded Kyiv pull troops back from the frontline, agree to end all Western arms support and give up on its ambitions to join the Nato military alliance. Dnipropetrovsk is not among the five Ukrainian regions over which Russia has asserted a formal territorial claim. It is an important mining and industrial hub for Ukraine and deeper Russian advances into the region could have a serious knock-on effect for Kyiv's struggling military and economy. Dnipropetrovosk was estimated to have a population of around three million people before Russia launched its offensive. Around one million people lived in the regional capital, Dnipro. Russia's defence ministry said forces from a tank unit had "reached the western border of the Donetsk People's Republic and are continuing to develop an offensive in the Dnipropetrovsk region". The advance of Russian forces into yet another region of Ukraine is both a symbolic and strategic blow to Kyiv's forces afer months of setbacks on the battlefield. There was no immediate response from Ukraine to Russia's statement. Moscow in 2022 said it was annexing the frontline Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it did not have full control over. In 2014, it seized the Crimean peninsula following a pro-EU revolution in Kyiv. In a set of peace demands issued to Ukraine at the latest talks, it demanded formal recognition that these regions were part of Russia – something Kyiv has repeatedly ruled out. (AFP)
