Group chief Wagner says Russian planes could have been shot down by Russia itself

2023-05-14 19:10:02

The head of Russia’s feared private army the Wagner Group suggested on Sunday that four Russian military planes that crashed in a region bordering Ukraine may have been shot down by Russian forces themselves.

Russian authorities have not commented on reports in Russian mainstream and social media that two fighter jets — one Su-34 and one Su-35 — and two Mi-8 military helicopters crashed in the region on Saturday. from Briansk.

The state news agency Tass cited unspecified sources in the emergency services that the Su-34 and a helicopter had crashed. Other sources, including Vladimir Rogov, head of a Russian collaborationist organization in the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhia, said four planes went down.

Apparently, they all belonged to the same military air group.

During the war, cross-border shelling has repeatedly hit Bryansk, which borders the Ukrainian provinces of Chernihiv and Sumy. Authorities say unexplained explosions derailed two freight trains and an armed group entered the region from Ukraine in March, killing two civilians.

The reported accidents raise concerns regarding Ukraine’s ability to hit Russia and Russia’s military proficiency.

Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat denied on Sunday that Ukraine was involved in the downing of the plane. Speaking on Ukrainian television, he suggested that Russia itself might be responsible, but later backtracked, saying it was an attempt to joke.

However, Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered a similar hypothesis.

“Four planes, – if you draw a circle at the places of their fall, it turns out that this circle has a diameter (and they all lie exactly in a circle) of 40 kilometers (25 miles)… Now go to the Internet and see what kind of air defense weapon might be in the center of this circle, and then build your own versions,” Prigozhin said on Telegram.

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