(TheRedAlertNews.com) – The embattled and highly demoralized Russian military, still trying to conquer Ukraine after five months of war ordered by Moscow dictator Vladimir Putin, is having a growing number of embarrassing incidents in which it is downing its fighter planes and attack helicopters.
You can watch a video of a Russian fighter jet being shot down further down this post.
On February 24 of this year, Putin dispatched 200,000 troops to invade Ukraine, a nation the size of Texas, from three sides to conquer it for his new Soviet empire.
However, the Ukrainians have resisted ferociously aided by American and other Western weapon supplies, and have inflicted significant losses upon the Russian invaders.
Earlier this week, in a double incident of “friendly fire,” a Russian assault helicopter attacked its own troops on the ground by mistake, and they shot it down, also mistakenly believing it was a Ukrainian attack.
The Ukrainian military announced the incident, whose general staff jokingly described the downing of the Russian attack helicopter as a “gesture of goodwill” by Russian President Putin, as cited by The Daily Mail.
The Russian helicopter downed by the Russians was a Ka-52 “Alligator,” which is among the most modern choppers of the Russian military and costs $14.6 million.
The incident happened in the Kherson region in Southern Ukraine, which the Russians still occupy, but the Ukrainians are preparing a counterattack to liberate it.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the Russian assault helicopter was part of a party of three machines sent with the task of finding and destroying US-supplied rocket artillery systems HIMARS, which this month have helped the Ukrainians practically reverse the course of the war in their favor.
Last week, in another “goodwill gesture” towards the Ukrainians, the Russian troops in the Luhansk region in Southeast Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-34M fighter-bomber, one of the most modern aircraft of the Russian Air Force, which costs $41 million apiece.
A video from the wreckage of the Su-34 downed by its own has emerged on social media showing the “Russian Aerospace Forces” inscription on its side. A Russian Su-35 fighter was also downed by friendly fire back in April.
The Russian military has lost close to 41,000 soldiers killed in battle in Ukraine, according to the official Ukrainian count, which would swell to 80,000 if counting also the dead mercenaries from Putin’s private armies and the killed ethnic Russian conscripts from occupied Ukrainian regions.
The Russians have also lost nearly 11,000 units of military equipment, including 222 warplanes and 190 helicopters – meaning more than half of its operational Air Force is now gone, plus 1,742 main battle tanks, 2,854 trucks, and jeeps, and 3,979 armored personnel carriers, among others.
Here’s the video:
Russian Su-35 fighter that was shot down by friendly fire near Nova Kahovka, russian-occupied southern part of #Ukraine.
This is the second modern russian aircraft that they shot down themselves recently (Su-34M was shot down yesterday).#russianLosses #RussiaInvadedUkraine pic.twitter.com/QgDv4gzJUP
— Walter Report 🇺🇦 (@walter_report) July 19, 2022
