In two minutes, Ukraine will manage to deal a heavy blow to the Russian air force in the problem areas of France – that’s why there will be another bang in the banlieues

May 13, 2023 was not a Friday. It would be a black day for some Russian pilots. They departed from bases in Western Russia to launch attacks on the neighboring country. The target was believed to be the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. The city had been bombed many times by the Russian Air Force. But that day was different.

As is only now known, Ukrainian forces dealt a spectacular blow to Putin’s army. Using a Patriot anti-aircraft system, the Ukrainians shot down two helicopters and two fighter-bombers almost simultaneously. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported this in mid-May. As so often in the Russian media, the incident was treated with great restraint. In addition, Russian authorities have only confirmed the loss of four flying objects and their crew.

According to Ukrainian sources, the Patriot crew also managed to shoot down another helicopter. Apparently he was sent to search for possible survivors. Officially, eleven pilots would have been killed in the Ukrainian attack. It was probably the day with the heaviest losses for the Russian air force since the start of the illegal offensive war in February 2022.

Bomb has a dangerous time fuse

The aircraft were a Sukhoi Su-34 and a Su-35. Both would be carrying UPAB-1500V glide bombs. The bombs are causing major problems for the Ukrainian armed forces, as they are difficult to defend. The bombs can fly up to 40 kilometers after being shot down from a great height by the fighter-bombers.

The bombs weigh 1.5 tons and contain a warhead of more than 1,000 kilograms. They have a delayed firing mechanism that will not detonate the bomb until it has already penetrated an object, such as an enemy bunker. That makes them particularly dangerous. They are built by the Russian state arms company GNPP Region.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said of the UPAB-1500V in March: “Our anti-aircraft defenses are not efficient enough to deal with the bombs themselves, so we have to try to take down the Su-34s with this weapon.” On May 13, this apparently succeeded.

Apparently, troops attacked on Russian territory

The fact that the Ukrainian armed forces are only now reporting this success is probably due to the fact that the two planes and the two or three helicopters were shot down while they were still on Russian territory. In the Briansk region, residents reported at least one helicopter shot down that day, as evidenced by video footage.

Actually, the Ukrainian armed forces want to avoid attacks with Western weapons on Russian territory, or at least that is what the government in Kiev has promised the allied states. But the introduction of the hard-to-defend slide bombs by the Russian Air Force has exacerbated the situation for the country under attack.

(t-online, cc)