Russian Su-25 warplane crashes in Ukraine, likely hit by own forces

Russian blogger and author of the aviation Telegram channel Fighterbomber, Ilya Tumanov, reported earlier today that a Russian Su-25 had crashed in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

There is a possibility that the aircraft was shot down by another Russian pilot.

Later, Tumanov posted a video showing the moment of the crash and stated that "the causes of the Su-25 crash can be considered established."

"The pilot is in the hospital with a broken arm. A commission will determine what went wrong and who is to blame," Tumanov added.

The incident was also confirmed by Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst AviVector.

According to his report, a pair of Su-25 attack aircraft took off from the Taganrog-Central air base and were operating in the Vuhledar–Avdiivka direction during a combat mission.

"During the mission, one of the aircraft suffered an accident and crashed," AviVector reported.

Meanwhile, OSINTtechnical stated that on the morning of the same day, a Russian Air Force pilot accidentally shot down his wingman with unguided rockets over Ukraine's Donetsk region.

"Friendly fire" in Russia

This is not the first case of friendly fire involving Russian forces. For instance, last year Russian media reported that the tugboat Engineer Smirnov and the barge Section-179 were attacked in the Sea of Azov.

The Russian Navy did not rule out the possibility that the strike came from their own side.

In a previous incident, Russian forces reportedly shot down their own Mi-8MTV-5 helicopter, resulting in the death of the entire crew.

Even Russian troops have openly acknowledged that friendly fire incidents are no longer uncommon.

Yurii Ihnat, head of the communications department of the Ukrainian Air Force, has even suggested a likely reason why Russian forces keep shooting down their own aircraft.