The commander of Russia’s private Wagner Group said Sunday that the four Russian warplanes that crashed in a region on the border with Ukraine may have been shot down by Russian forces, the Associated Press reported.
Russian officials did not comment on routine Russian 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, claimed that four planes were shot down.
According to reports, all aircraft belong to the same military air unit.
During the war, cross-border bombing 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 at Russia and about Russia’s military competence.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat denied on Sunday that Ukraine was responsible for the downing of the plane. In remarks broadcast on Ukrainian television, he referred to the possibility of Russia’s responsibility, 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) of 40 kilometers … Now go to the Internet and see what kind of air defense system it can be in 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.
Videos on social media show at least one helicopter crashed near the town of Klintsy in Bryansk, 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, according to CNN.
Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk, confirmed the helicopter crash, injuring one civilian, but gave no details on the cause.
The official Russian news agency “Tass” published a video clip of a helicopter exploding in the air, and confirmed the crash of a Su-34 fighter, without indicating the cause.
