MOSCOW, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry describes as absurd the Ukrainian side's accusations of a missile attack against Ukraine’s Su-25 assault plane on July 16.

“This is absurd, as all the previous accusations from the Kiev authorities against Russia’s Defense Ministry. We are almost daily denounced with pledges to provide “conclusive evidence” soon. And every time this “evidence” disappears somewhere, and the embarrassment is covered with new, even more phantasmagoric accusations,” a high-ranking military official told ITAR-TASS.

Earlier, the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine claimed that a Russian military plane allegedly downed a Su-25 jet of the Ukrainian Air Force over the territory of Ukraine.

 

Other incidents with Ukrainian aircraft in the country’s east

July 14, the press service of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) confirmed that the militiamen downed two planes of the Ukrainian Air Force. Earlier, the military operation staff reported that “a strike aircraft was downed near Lisichansk, and a transport plane — near Izvarino”, allegedly the An-26, with which the connection was lost earlier.

July 11, near the city of Perevalsk (Luhansk region), LPR militia downed a Ukrainian Air Force plane, allegedly a strike aircraft. July 1, they also managed to hit a Su-25 attack plane. The two pilots managed to eject. Overnight to June 14, during a landing approach in Luhansk airport, an Il-76 transport plane carrying military equipment, ammunition and reinforce, was attacked. The Ukrainian authorities confirmed the death of 49 servicemen.

 

About the jet

Su-25 is a Russian strike-fighter designed to provide close air support for ground units amid direct vision of the target, as well as to destroy objects with specified coordinates in any weather conditions.