https://t.me/MykolaOleshchuk/194
π± On the morning of February 17, 2024, in the Eastern direction, units of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed three enemy aircraft at once -π¬ two Su-34 fighter-bombers andπ« one Su-35 fighter!
Nothing will stop us!
π€ Thank you, warriors!
πΊπ¦ Together to victory!
https://t.me/MykolaOleshchuk/196
In Russia, as always, "there are no losses"π€‘
Let me remind you that the Su-35S is a single-seater aircraft, the Su-34 is a two-seater. According to radio interception, one pilot was found, the others were "wanted"!
Something doesn't add up here, does it? π€
βοΈThere is such an international satellite search and rescue system - Cospas-Sarsat. In case of accidents, it notifies about the location of the pilots' personal radio buoys.
As you can see, the system is working! In the photo - as many as four Cospas-Sarsat (points on the map) worked - look for "brothers" in these areas! π No thanks!
There is also the possibility they forward-deployed a Patriot again. Hard to tell, unfortunately.
Yeah second time they've taken down three in one day. I'd say the forward deployed patriot is a solid bet
When you say again, is that the kind of thing they'd only do temporarily to try and get some surprise kills such as these?
Yeah, it is something Ukraine has done a few times now. They have patriot batteries defending major cities/parts of the front, but occasionally they will covertly pack one up, drive it real close to the front-line somewhere, wait for some Russian jets to wander in, blap them, and then quickly pack up and go back to a more defensible location.
It has a few effects. The biggest is they get some very high-value kills. We have seen helicopters, Su-34s on several occasions, and even an A-50 AWACS aircraft. The secondary effect is, as they just 'pop up', Russia has to be careful along the entire front, lest they get caught exposed again. Thirdly, it lets them keep the few Patriot batteries they have in areas that need the defense most of the time. Think around military instillation and large cities.
Edit: Ideally they would be able to have these cover the full front AND the large cities, but they just don't have enough for that.