Russia has said that its Su-35S fighters have destroyed the Ukrainian air defence system.
The images purport to show one of the Russian fighter jets on one of its sorties.
It can be seen taxiing onto a runway before taking to the skies before it can apparently be seen firing its deadly missiles from above the clouds at unseen targets.
The images were obtained from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Friday, 18th November, along with a statement claiming: “Defeat from heaven: footage of combat sorties of Su-35S aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces during the special military operation.
“When performing combat missions, the crews of multi-role fighters practised patrolling in a given area and covering the actions of bomber and attack aircraft, army aviation helicopters when delivering air strikes against enemy military facilities and equipment.
“During one of the sorties, an aircraft and a radar station for illuminating targets and guiding missiles of the S-300 air defence system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were timely detected and destroyed.”
We have not been able to independently verify the claims or the footage.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 268th day of the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 18th November, Russia had lost about 83,460 personnel, 2,879 tanks, 5,808 armoured combat vehicles, 1,865 artillery units, 393 multiple launch rocket systems, 209 air defence systems, 278 warplanes, 261 helicopters, 1,536 drones, 480 cruise missiles, 16 warships, 4,366 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 161 units of special equipment.
Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that 10 million people in Ukraine are without electricity after renewed Russian missile strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure on Thursday morning.
The first snow has fallen on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, with the authorities saying that they are working to restore electricity across the country after Moscow carried out what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the war.
The Ukrainian military has said that Russian forces have fired with artillery on the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
They said that the region is experiencing its heaviest fighting since the beginning of the war after Russian forces were reinforced by soldiers that have been pulled out from Kherson city in the south of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have said that Russia has carried out strikes on critical infrastructure in Dnipro and Odesa. Two people have also reportedly been killed in a missile attack on the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, with three more people wounded in an attack on the city of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian investigators have said that they have uncovered 63 bodies who were killed by Russian soldiers and bear signs of torture in recaptured territories, according to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky.
The Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom has said that Russian missile strikes that hit Ukraine on Tuesday were probably the largest number carried out by Moscow in a single day since the first week of the invasion in late February.
