Russian Air Defense Increasingly Shoots Down Its Aircraft In Occupied Crimea

Ukrainian partisans revealed details.

Russian occupiers increasingly began to shoot down their own aircraft over the temporarily occupied Crimea. The reason for the increased frequency of “friendly fire” from Russian air defense was the growing tension due to constant attacks by Ukraine on Russian military targets on the peninsula.

Fearing another “bavovna,” the Russian command ordered air defense crew commanders to respond to any threats – despite the fact that the Russian friend-foe recognition system has problems. This was stated in the military movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars ATESH, writes obozrevatel.com.

“Agents of the ATESH movement report that tension is growing among the occupiers in the Crimea due to constant missile attacks and UAV raids that threaten military installations. The top military leadership ordered air defense crew commanders to shoot down threats, despite problems with the “friend or foe” target detection and recognition system. However, faced with constant missile attacks and UAV raids, commanders of air defense crews are forced to carry out target designation virtually in manual mode. Thanks to this, strikes often occur against their own air targets,” the report noted.

Thus, the 12th anti-aircraft missile regiment of the 31st air defense division of the Russian Federation especially distinguished itself in this direction: over the past few weeks it shot down two military aircraft of the Russian occupiers.

On March 28, the Pantsir air defense missile system division of this anti-aircraft missile regiment sent the Russian Su-27 fighter into an “eternal flight.”

“The air defense system was located in the area of Inkerman Bay in Sevastopol,” ATESH clarified.

And on April 10, another Pantsir crew, stationed in the area of the Saki airbase, shot down a Mi-24 helicopter on the western coast of the Crimea.

“The crews that are responsible for such incidents continue to serve and do not receive any punishment. The Russian leadership takes into account the above-mentioned problems. A logical question arises: is it possible that the Russian Air Defense Forces deliberately shoot down Russian aircraft, taking advantage of their impunity? Can they do this to fight racism or to get a good bonus?” ATESH notes.