- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that the four downed Russian aircraft were being “shot down.”
- According to Reuters, Lukashenko dealt with Belarusian troops on Monday at the border with Ukraine.
- The Belarusian leader decisively claimed that the 4 plane were being shot down — but did not say by whom.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko seems to have inadvertently confirmed that 4 Russian military plane had been shot down late last 7 days — before the Kremlin formally made the declare.
On Saturday, Russian information outlet Kommersant reported that one Su-34 fighter-bomber, a Su-35 fighter, and two Mi-8 helicopters were shot down in Russia, near the Ukraine-Belarus border, as the plane prepared an assault on Ukraine’s Chernihiv location.
No evidence relating to the nature of the crash was supplied by the outlet, and neither the Kremlin nor Ukraine has taken accountability for the evident downing of the aircraft, but on Monday, Lukashenko appeared to verify that the planes were shot down, in accordance to Reuters.
The crews on all 4 aircraft were being killed, for each Reuters, and Kommersant documented that the “air team most probable fell into an air ambush.” While talking to troops at the Belarusian border on Monday, Lukashenko urged fighters to keep on high alert, generating a extra decisive assert about what transpired.
“Three days following the occasions in the vicinity of us — I necessarily mean in the Bryansk area, when 4 plane were shot down, we are compelled to react,” Lukashenko reported, in accordance to Reuters. “Considering that then, we, our troops, have been on high alert.”
—Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1adore) May possibly 13, 2023
With no official reaction from Ukraine or the Kremlin, it’s nonetheless unclear particularly what happened, but Lukashenko’s slip suggests a breakdown in conversation between Russia and one particular of its closest allies.
The crash signified the most Russian aircraft shed in a solitary working day given that March 2022, in accordance to the professional-Russia Telegram channel Fighterbomber.
In the times surrounding the alleged downing of the aircraft, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has manufactured the rounds to a variety of EU allies and the United kingdom, securing additional munitions as Ukraine has mounted a making counteroffensive in Bakhmut.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a single of Zelensky’s advisors, termed the crash “justice and immediate karma,” in accordance to Reuters.
