2024-08-06 07:07:37
The video appears to have been first shared by Russian military blogger Kirill Fyodorov on his War History Weapons account on the Telegram app.
The video, shot solely from the pilot’s perspective, begins above the clouds and shows the shot down fighter jet falling to the ground while spinning slightly below. At one point, one of its engines appears to be on fire. Due to the distance from the camera and the relatively poor quality, it is not very clear what type of Su series fighter this is.
The Su-35S single-seat multirole fighter, the Su-30SM double-seat, as well as the Su-34 are widely used in Russia’s war in Ukraine. In this case, the Su-35S seems the most likely candidate – as there are no obvious signs of the Su-34’s wider “flat-bottomed” front fuselage or the canarded front wings of the Su-30SM and Su-34. Another possible candidate is the older Su-27s, which have seen limited combat use and are based at Belbek airbase in occupied Crimea.
The view then pans to the pilot as he dangles under the typical orange and white parachute, his helmet visor still down. A survival kit is also visible below the pilot, including an un-deployed life raft for water landing. About midway through the video, after reaching a lower altitude, the pilot takes off his oxygen mask, raises the visor and faces the camera.
The wind blowing around makes it difficult to understand all of his words, but in between the swearing you can hear that his plane has been hit, that he is about to turn on the GPS, that there is no communication, that nothing can be done (you can guess that it is about a combat mission).
The relatively calm demeanor of the pilot, and especially the fact that he even decided to record the moment after the downing, suggests that it may have happened over Russian territory, or perhaps over that part of Ukraine, where he could be sure that he would not be detained by Ukrainian forces.
According to data from the open source intelligence group Oryx, from 2022 In February, when the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, seven Su-35S were destroyed in air battles. The most recent destruction was in February of this year.
While it is possible that the incident seen in the video is recent, it is also very likely that it may be from earlier years of the war, and may include one of the already confirmed Su downs.
One online account geolocated the area near Chervony Yar in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, close to the Russian border – and said the incident took place in 2023. December 22 On that day, three Russian Su-34s were reported shot down by the Ukrainians in southern Ukraine – although it is possible that this was simply another incident, or even that the Su-35S were mistakenly identified as Su-34s.
There is no doubt that this video is unusual – although it is by no means the first example from Ukraine of how cockpit cameras are changing the way we view the reality of modern air battles, The War Zone writes.
2024-08-06 07:07:37