The pilot of one of the aircraft shot down over the Kherson region in December 2023 published unique footage of the first moments after the Patriot missile struck the jet.

The archived video was published by Russian telegram channels.

A Russian pilot recorded the crash of his own plane, after it was hit by an anti-aircraft missile, on his cell phone while he was in the ejection seat.

“We were shot down. We were lucky that it was above the ground. We didn’t have time to do anything. We were flying high [approaching the target],” the pilot comments, noting that everything happened too quickly to perform an evasive maneuver.

OSINT analyst EjShahid verified the approximate location of the Russian pilot’s landing (here) near the village of Chervonyi Yar in the Kherson region using a video image of the ground.

On December 22, 2023, the Ukrainian Air Force hit Russian targets with anti-aircraft weapons at this location, claiming to have shot down three Su-34 bombers at once.

The Ukrainian Air Force command did not report the type of anti-aircraft system used. However, the crash site was located more than 70 kilometers from the Ukrainian-controlled Dnipro River coast, suggesting the use of a long-range Patriot air defense system.

This information was partially confirmed by the Russian military-related Telegram channels, which reported the downing of at least one plane and the deaths of the pilots.

Footage of a search and rescue operation was released, showing the evacuation of one of the downed plane’s pilots.

The intercepted Su-34 bombers were actively used by the invaders at that time to launch modified FAB-500 bombs with UMPK kits at Ukrainian positions on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro River.

However, after a successful ambush, the activity of Russian tactical aviation in this area of the frontline decreased sharply, and the launch of aircraft bombs stopped for a long time.

Militarnyi reported previously that the Defense Forces of Ukraine destroyed one Su-34 and damaged two more during a long-range drone strike on the Russian military airfield in Morozovsk.