UAF claims damage to RF warship, AWACs plane

Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) managed to hit to two Russian military targets normally out of reach of Kyiv’s forces, news reports said on Monday.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet RBSF frigate Admiral Essen operating off shore from the port city Odesa overnight suffered damaged from a UAF naval attack and retired over the horizon, the Dumska news agency reported, citing UAF naval sources. There were no details.

For more than a month UAF forces have struggled to strike RBSF warships at sea, although a lucky missile strike sank the RBSF landing ship Saratov as it was unloading in the port Berdyansk.

The Admiral Essen was, according to news reports, one of several RBSF platforms that have fired cruise missiles at inland targets in Ukraine for more than a month.

News of the Admiral Essen’s alleged damage came shortly after overnight reports, first announced by the Odesa Defense Command, that at least four RF cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea approached civilian targets on the shore.

Two were shot down by the UAF and two more missiles struck civilian homes and businesses near a fuel storage site, the statement said.

Ukraine’s air defense command (UADC) on Monday announced it had damaged and possibly downed an RF air force Il-22 AWACS aircraft. The planes, used for air traffic control of RF air strikes, usually fly deep inside RF territory and far away from UAF air defenses.

The UADC statement said over the last 24 hours, aside from damaging the Il-23, UAF forces shot down an SU-34 fighter, an Su-35 attack jet, one helicopter, and two cruise missiles. It gave no details on how the RF AWACS plane was damaged.

Since the RF’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine the UAF has claimed it has shot down or destroyed 147 RF combat jets and 135 helicopters. Some international estimates have suggested that although those claims may be high by as much as 30 percent, past aircraft losses have been so severe as to force the RF air force to shift from attempted air strikes on well-defended UAF units, to bombing Ukrainian civilian homes and businesses.