Ukraine downs Russian Su-34 aircraft, 14 Shahed drones over past day

Ukrainian forces shot down 14 of the 17 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight on March 2, as well as a Su-34 attack plane on the morning of March 1, the Air Force reported.

This is the first Russian jet fighter shot down this month after Russia lost 13 warplanes in just two weeks of February.

The Su-34 was reportedly downed at 9 a.m. local time on the eastern front while trying to attack Ukrainian positions with guided aerial bombs.

The 17 Shahed-type drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai and from occupied Crimea. Some 14 of them were downed above Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.

Even though the majority of the drones were intercepted, the attack dealt damage and civilian casualties, including at least two people killed and seven injured in Odesa and three injured in Kharkiv Oblast.

Russian forces also attacked Ukraine with air-launched cruise missiles Kh-59/Kh-35 from occupied parts of Kherson and Donetsk oblasts, according to the Air Force.

Read also: Ukraine destroyed 13 Russian military aircraft in 2 weeks. How?

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