The planes were lured into a trap by Ukraine. It was a setup that started the day before. Russia was led to believe there was going to a Storm Shadow launch against the Kerch bridge.
So far, I have not seen any maps that show possible launch locations for the Patriot.
Russia was led to believe there was going to a Storm Shadow launch against the Kerch bridge.
So, Ukraine knows that Russia is reading some of Ukraine's message traffic. Cool.
The setup may have started the day before, but mission planning probably started shortly after Gerasimov was injured or killed.
Military History channel reports it’s possible both aircraft were show down by friendly fire.
If true it’s a mistake of epic proportions. Maybe even war changing. A 2021 estimate said Russia had about 20 such planes total and assuming several are always down for maintenance and a few perhaps may have already been lost in the war we could be talking about maybe 1/4 of their total available!!!