London, April 20 (IANS): A Russian strategic bomber aircraft was likely brought down by the Ukrainian air force, according to an estimate by the British Ministry of Defence in an update on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter on Saturday, calling it "the first instance of a strategic bomber being shot down by Ukrainian Air Defence Systems."
"It is highly likely that Russia has now sustained at least 100 fixed-wing combat losses to date," the ministry said.
The Russian Air Force lost one of its Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic heavy bombers on Friday. While the Russian Ministry of Defence said there had been a crash likely caused by technical problems, Ukraine claimed that it was shot down.
The commander of the Ukrainian air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said this was the first time such an aircraft had been successfully shot down with a missile.