On July 9, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced another Su-25 of the Ukrainian Air Force being “shot down”.

According to the estimates of the MilitaryAviationUA community, today’s alleged “shot down” “Grach” (Su-25 – ed.) became the 70th aircraft reported by the Russian propaganda.

They analyzed the data of daily briefings since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and published quotes of Russian propagandists with references to the destroyed Ukrainian attack aircraft.

Сьогодні мо рф відзвітувало про 70 збитих/знищених Су-25 ) pic.twitter.com/r38nqMGQV5

— MilitaryAviationInUa (@MilAviaUA) July 9, 2022

The Russians will likely continue reporting the downed Ukrainian Su-25s. Whilst the ordinary Russian Federation citizens will continue believing these fakes, anyone who knows the way around the realities of the Ukrainian Air Force will treat it to be as unrealistic as possible.

Until the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Su-25 attack aircraft were in service with a single military unit, 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade. According to the open data provided by the Wikipedia article on this detachment, the 299th Brigade had two squadrons in its disposal. A typical Ukrainian squadron has 12 aircraft.

Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 ??
Video https://t.co/E543HMayNz pic.twitter.com/ZmFRkb6cTA

— MilitaryAviationInUa (@MilAviaUA) July 5, 2022

Thus, the Russians have already “destroyed” three times more Su-25s than Ukraine theoretically had until February 24, 2022 (provided that they were all combat-ready and could perform missions).

Russian propaganda will have to explain to the Russians where Ukraine came across at least four squadrons of Su-25 that are no longer being manufactured. The Russian statements on other types of destroyed Ukrainian equipment also have no connection with reality.