Chief Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin
Russia and Ukraine
Russian officials have not commented on media reports that two Su-34 and Su-35 fighter jets and two Mi-8 military helicopters crashed in the Bryansk region on Saturday.
Published in: May 14, 2023: 10:33 PM GST
Last updated: May 14, 2023: 11:04 PM GST
The commander of Russia’s private Wagner Group said Sunday that the four Russian warplanes that crashed in an area on the border with Ukraine may have been shot down by Russian forces.
Russian officials did not comment on Russian traditional and social media reports that two Su-34 and Su-35 fighter jets and two Mi-8 military helicopters crashed in the Bryansk region on Saturday.
The state news agency TASS quoted unnamed sources of emergency services as saying that the Su-34 and one helicopter had crashed. Other sources, including Vladimir Rogov, head of the Russian Cooperation Organization in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia Province, confirmed that four planes had been shot down.
According to reports, all the planes belong to the same military air unit.
During the war in Ukraine, cross-border shelling frequently hit Bryansk, which borders Ukraine’s Chernihiv and Sumy provinces. Authorities there alleged that unprovoked explosions derailed two freight trains and that an armed group entered the region from Ukraine in March and killed two civilians.
The reported incidents raise concerns about Ukraine’s ability to strike Russia and about Russia’s military competence.
Smoke rises from Bryansk Saturday after the helicopter crash
On Sunday, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, denied that Ukraine was responsible for the downing of the plane. In remarks broadcast on Ukrainian television, he referred to the possibility of Russia being responsible, but later retracted the statement, saying it was an attempt to joke.
Nevertheless, Wagner’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin proclaimed a similar hypothesis.
Prigozhin said via the Telegram application: “Four planes … if you draw a circle in the places where they fell, it will become clear that this circle has a diameter – and they are all located in an exact circle – 40 kilometers … Now go to the Internet and see what kind of air defense system it can be in in the middle of this circle, and then build your own hypothesis.
Prigozhin, whose forces have been engaged in a fierce battle for months to control the city of Bakhmut, said he was not “aware” of the situation. But he repeatedly criticized the Russian military for its strategy in Ukraine and for its failure to provide Wagner with the ammunition he needed at Bakhmut.
