As the Russians themselves report, not only the bomber itself was lost, one of the pilots was also killed. The fate of the second one is unknown for now.
The circumstances of the incident are unclear
The statement announcing the loss of the Su-34 did not provide any information about the circumstances of the event, while the Ukrainian media reported that the plane was shot down by the Ukrainian army. The latter, in turn, has not yet boasted of successfully bringing down the machine, so at the moment we only have unofficial reports on this matter.
This does not change the fact that this is a severe loss. We are talking about an extremely important structure in the context of the war with Ukraine, where the Su-34 is the backbone of Russia's air forces and is responsible for a large part of the bombing raids against our neighbor. It is also a severe loss in financial terms – the cost of the Su-34 is approximately USD 50 million.
Su-34 – the newest bomber in Putin's arsenal
The Sukhoi Su-34 is a two-seater combat aircraft that can operate as a bomber or attack aircraft. The Su-34 flies at an altitude of up to 17 km, accelerates to a speed of Mach 1.8 when fully loaded and has a considerable range of up to 4,000 km. km, which can be further increased thanks to the possibility of air refueling. The plane also withstands overloads of over 9 g can carry as much as 14 tons of various weapons, including: long-range cruise missiles.
Su-34Fasttailwind / Shutterstock
It is also one of Russia's newest flying machines. The Su-34 entered service in 2014 and the Kremlin currently has approximately 150 aircraft of this type. Moscow also has big plans for this structure, which is to replace the long-serving Tu-22 and Su-24 bombers in its forces.
