A video first posted to social media by a Russian propagandist, proudly relaying that their air defenses in South Eastern Ukraine had brought down a fighter jet turned into some dismay the next morning when the wreckage revealed it wasn't Ukrainian but a brand new Sukhoi-34M, one of the most advanced fighter bombers in the world, and roughly equivalent to the American F-15E Strike Eagle.

Oops.

Source: Forbes

Russian air-defense troops just shot down one of the most sophisticated warplanes involved in Russia’s wider war in Ukraine.

One problem. It was a Russian warplane. A brand-new Sukhoi Su-34M fighter-bomber.

Russian propagandist Yevgeny Poddubny apparently captured on video the Sunday shoot-down over the city of Alchevsk in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. “Last night, the air-defense crew of the allied forces destroyed a target in the sky over Alchevsk,” Poddubny wrote Monday. “The nature of the target is not clear. The burning ball fell to the ground for more than a minute.”

A video of the wreckage confirmed the plane’s identity: it’s the Su-34M with the registry RF-95890, one of just 10 or so Su-34Ms that Sukhoi so far has delivered to the Russian air force.

The Kremlin in May 2020 cut a contract with United Aircraft Corporation’s Sukhoi division to build 76 Su-34Ms at a rate of eight to 14 planes annually through 2027, at a cost of around $50 million per copy.

UPDATE: Today, there are reports of a Su-35 also shot down, something the Russians claimed Ukraine could not do at the outset of the war. Roughly equivalent to the American F-35, but without the stealth capabilities. Might have come in handy for the Russians. Cost: $85mil USD. Ukraine did claim to have shot this one down, however.