A Ukrainian drone has taken down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet over the Black Sea for the first time, Kyiv intelligence officials said.
The Ukrainian Magura drone destroyed the Moscow Su-30 on Friday near the port of Novorossiysk, where Kyiv claims Russia holds a Black Sea fleet, according to Ukraine. The crew of the doomed jet is believed to have been rescued.
“This is the first time in the world that a combat aircraft has been destroyed by a marine drone,” the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said Saturday.
“The Russian Su-30 — a multi-role fighter jet with an estimated value of $50 million — was engulfed in flames mid-air before crashing into the sea, where the ruthless domain of Neptune claimed it,” the agency added.
Kyiv’s claims were echoed by Russian military bloggers, who have become a key source of information along the frontlines as independent news outlets are not entrenched in the combat zones.
“The Ukrainians brought more than three dozen drones… After jet was hit, the crew ended up in the water, surrounded by enemy drones,” a blogger with the handle Fighterbomber wrote on Telegram.
Another pro-Russian military blogger who goes by Rybar said a Russian jet was hit and that the pilots were “picked up by civilian sailors.”
The Kremlin has yet to comment on the incident.
Amid the strike, officials in Novorossiysk declared a state of emergency, claiming a Ukraine drone attack injured five people in the city and damaged a grain terminal in the busy trade port.
Kyiv touted the successful strike against the fighter jet, noting that it followed another first when its naval drones were used to take out two Russian helicopters on the last day of 2024.
Ukraine’s Magura V5 missile drone stands as the latest UAV innovation from Kyiv, a development that has allowed its forces to bombard Moscow’s war fleet along the Black Sea.
Last year, Ukrainian drones sank the Ivanovets guided-missile ship in the Black Sea after Russia’s withdrawal from a maritime truce.
Drones have also aided in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow’s latest bombardment injuring at least 11 people in Kyiv by striking residential buildings across the capital, officials said.
