Ukraine war: Kyiv loses two of its last Su-27 jets, a MiG-29 to Russian forces, say reports

The Ukrainian Air Force lost two of its last Su-27 Fighters and a MiG-29 in air battles with Russian forces, according to media reports on Monday (Sept 16). In a statement, the Russian Defence Ministry said that these incidents occurred during dogfights between late Saturday and throughout Sunday.

A report by the Military Watch Magazine said that the two Su-27 Fighters were destroyed by Russian aviation assets, while ground-based air defences shot down the MiG-29.

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Destroyed aircraft were developed by the Soviet Union

The report said that the three destroyed aircraft were developed in the Soviet Union to form part of a high-low combination, mirroring the development of the F-15 and the F-16 in the United States (US).

When tested in the West in the 1990s, the Su-27 and the MiG-29 were consistently found to be capable of comfortably outperforming the F-15 and F-16.

Ukraine had inherited both the fighter classes in considerable numbers when the USSR disintegrated. Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since late February 2022,has received large numbers of MiG-29s from across Eastern Europe since that year.

The significance of these aircraft in Ukraine war

A report by Bulgarianmilitary.com said that the Ukrainian Air Force was operating around50 MiG-29s and approximately 26 Su-27s.The MiG lineup included models like the MiG-29MU1 and MiG-29MU2, while the Su-27 fleet consisted of models such as the Su-27S, Su-27P, and Su-27UB, the report added.

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The report pointed out that many of these fighter jets required maintenance or upgrades due to ageing technology and limited resources for modernisation.

When Russia's invasion began on February 24, 2022,only a portion of these fighters were fully operational.

(With inputs from agencies)