On the morning of April 19, footage appeared on social networks showing the fall of the Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic bomber after a missile strike overnight. According to preliminary data, this enemy plane launched an attack on Odesa region, and fell on the territory of the Stavropol Territory of the Russian Federation. According to reports from the authorities of this region, it was possible to save two pilots, but here it is worth adding that the crew of the Tu-22M3 includes 4 people, from which it follows that part of the crew of this “board” still got to the concert in Kobzon.
Footage from the crash site of this enemy bomber is already publicly available. Therefore, only one question remains open here – as a result of which this Tu-22M3 from Rashist fell.
Read also: Rashists lost Tu-22M3, it is unlikely that it was “friendly fire” of Russian air defense
Photo from the crash site of the Russian Tu-22M3 in the morning of April 19, 2024 in the Stavropol region of the Russian Federation
The version that this bomber was shot down by our air defense was the first to appear on the monitoring channels. At the time of this publication, there are no official confirmations or denials, there is only a comment for “Ukrainian Pravda” from the spokesman of the Air Force, Major Ilya Yevlash, that “I can neither confirm nor deny it, we are currently verifying the information.”
Based on this, we cannot yet take the version about the downing of this Tu-22M3 by our air defense as the only one, until there is additional information. But as soon as possible, we will gladly return to this topic.
For now, we would like to remind you that at the end of December 2023, there was an episode when an unconfirmed report about the downing of a Russian Tu-22M3 was circulating in some resources. Then Defense Express explained in pictures whether it is even possible to shoot down the Tu-22M3, even if there is a Patriot.
Photo from the crash site of the Russian Tu-22M3 in the morning of April 19, 2024 in the Stavropol region of the Russian Federation
In addition, let us recall that by this time the Russians had already lost a Tu-22M3 shot down, and this was during the war against Georgia in 2008, about which we also had a separate article.
As we have already indicated above, there are no official data on this episode yet, so we have to consider other versions regarding the fall of the Rashist Tu-22M3 this morning. For example, certain “opinion leaders” currently express the version that it was actually “friendly fire” of Russian air defense. Here it remains only to answer in the key of “well, the Russians can’t be such idiots, because against whom are we then asking for help from the whole world.” To clarify, the Tu-22M3 has a fuselage length of up to 40 meters, a wingspan of 34 meters, and it is a large enough air target that it cannot be confused with any type of missile or drone on the radar screen.
Destroyed Russian Tu-22M3 as a result of the attack on Soltsy airfield, August 2023, image from open sources
Another version, which against this background may look at least adequate – if this Tu-22M3 was not shot down by our air defense, the enemy could lose this aircraft due to a technical malfunction. In any case, we can recall the statement of the head of the GUR MOU, Kirill Budanov, that the Russians have such serious technical problems with their Tu-22M3 fleet that, perhaps, against this background, the enemy will have to think about adapting the Kh-22 to the Tu-160 bombers.
Read also: The USA has deployed the latest M-LIDS anti-drone system in Romania
