Moscow is claiming that its forces have downed a US-made F-16 aircraft given to Ukraine just as the warplane was preparing to launch a missile strike from over a southeast region of the country.
"The F-16 aircraft was in position to launch a missile strike on the region, and it was shot down," TASS reports Thursday. The alleged downing has not been acknowledged by Ukraine, the Pentagon, or any outside entity.
State-run RT has also described that "One of the F-16 jets donated to Ukraine by NATO has reportedly been downed while attempting to launch missiles at Russia’s Zaporozhye Region."
"Preliminary information from the front line was reported on Thursday by Vladimir Rogov, the co-chair of Russia’s Coordinating Council for the Integration of New Regions," the same report adds.
Despite these big claims being made in Russian media, the story has been slow to appear in Western mainstream press accounts as of Thursday afternoon.
If true it would be the second US-donated F-16 to go down over Ukraine during the war, after a reported incident last August.
The August downing had come only days following an initial delivery of the fighter jets to Kiev, and was the result of a 'friendly fire' incident, based on the description of the crash by a Ukrainian member of parliament at the time.
"The pilot, Oleksiy Mes, died while helping to repel a massive Russian missile attack on Monday, the officials said," WSJ wrote of that first downing. "Initial reports indicate the jet wasn’t shot down by enemy fire, U.S. officials said." Accounts have remained conflicting.
As for this purported second downing, little details have been revealed. Ukraine is expected to keep mum about it even if the claims of a shootdown are accurate. If Russia starts shooting down Western-provided warplanes out of the skies at a higher rate, this would certainly help dissuade Ukraine's allies from sending more.
The Zelensky government has been complaining about a slow-down and delays in arrivals of major weapons systems, including jets, from Western partners.
Some European countries have meanwhile been reluctant to commit too much military hardware at a time Ukraine forces are being bested by Russia along the frontlines in the east.