From: Business Insider By Jake Epstein
- Russia has largely kept its Su-57 fighter jets out of the war in Ukraine, fearing a combat loss.
- But on Saturday, Ukrainian forces struck one of the aircraft hundreds of miles from the battlefield.
- It marked the first-ever hit on Russia’s much-celebrated fighter.
Russia has tried to keep its very limited number of Su-57 fighter jets hidden from the war in Ukraine, fearing that a combat loss would be a blow to the aircraft’s reputation, according to Western intelligence and aviation experts.
But over the weekend, Ukraine damaged one of the fifth-generation fighters anyway in a long-range strike hundreds of miles inside Russian territory, underscoring the vulnerabilities to Moscow’s most-celebrated weapons — even if they’re far from the battlefield.
A Su-57 was “hit for the first time” on Saturday in an attack on Russia’s Akhtubinsk airfield, located more than 365 miles from the front line, the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
To back up its claims, the HUR shared satellite imagery purportedly showing some damage to the aircraft as a result of the strike, as well as visible explosion and burn marks on the tarmac in the immediate vicinity of the fighter jet.
Voice of Ukraine 