Russia Announces Loss of Su-25 Jet Aircraft

Sources close to the Russian military have reported the loss of a Su-25 jet aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces due to an aviation incident.

According to Ilya Tumanov, a Russian blogger and the creator of the Fighterbomber Telegram channel, the aircraft was lost in a crash on June 13. The pilot was rescued and is currently safe.

Details regarding the cause of the crash and the exact location of the aircraft’s fall have not been disclosed. It is possible that the incident took place near the frontline, where Russian forces frequently deploy attack aircraft to launch unguided rockets at Ukrainian positions.

Operating Russian jet aircraft, many of which are around 40 years old, is linked to a significant number of accidents. Throughout the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, a considerable portion of Su-25 losses have been attributed to non-combat incidents.

In March of this year, the Russian military lost an aircraft during a training flight in the Primorsky Krai. According to aviation blogger Ilya Tumanov, both engines failed mid-flight, leading to the accident.

In 2023, two Su-25 jet aircraft were lost due to technical issues. One mysteriously crashed into the Sea of Azov during a combat mission, while the other went down in the Belgorod region. Both pilots lost their lives in these incidents.

A similar accident occurred in September 2022, when a Russian Su-25 crashed shortly after takeoff on a combat mission due to a control system failure.

Several losses of Russian attack aircraft have also been caused by the specific nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war. One of the main factors is poor coordination between Russian aviation and their own air defense units, which have repeatedly launched interceptors against their own aircraft.

For example, in December 2023, following reports of a Russian aircraft crash, Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces, stated that the loss was caused by Russian air defense.

“I can confidently say that it was not Ukrainian air defense that shot down the Russian Su-25 jet aircraft! These were precise and coordinated actions by the Russian air defense teams, for which they deserve great thanks from the entire Ukrainian people!.. Minus one Su-25 for the invaders. More to come…,” he wrote on Telegram.

There are also some rather unusual causes of losses — collisions with drones in the airspace and contact with power lines. All of these incidents were caused by flying at low altitudes, where the aircraft operates in the blind spots of both Ukrainian and Russian air defense systems.