Ukraine said Sunday it had hit an Su-57 fighter jet parked at an airfield in southern Russia, its first ever attack on Moscow’s latest generation stealth aircraft. The flagship Su-57 entered into service with Russia’s aerospace forces in December 2020 and was designed to replace ageing Soviet-designed fighter aircraft such as the Su-27 and MiG-29. “On 8 June 2024, a Su-57 multi-purpose fighter jet of the aggressor state was struck at the Akhtubinsk airfield in Russia’s Astrakhan region, 589 kilometers (366 miles) from the line of contact,” Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said. “The defeat of the Su-57 is the first such case in history,” the GUR added. It also published before-and-after satellite imagery of what it said showed fire damage and debris around an Su-57 jet parked on an airfield.
The agency did not say how it carried out the strike and did not claim responsibility directly. But a Ukrainian intelligence source told AFP that the GUR was responsible, and that it had used Ukrainian-made combat drones in the attack. Ukraine often targets military and energy facilities on Russian territory with drones, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Russian air defenses shot down three drones over the Astrakhan region on Saturday, according to Moscow’s defense ministry.
