Ukraine’s military announced that it shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet on Saturday morning.
In a brief statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s Air Force said the aircraft was downed “as a result of a successful Air Force operation in the Kursk direction.”
The Air Force later released video footage showing the wreckage alongside monitoring from a Ukrainian drone. No additional official details have been provided.
An F-16 fighter jet has shot down a Russian Su-35 for the first time in history.
The Dutch-donated F-16 shot down the Russian plane over the Kursk region of Russia on June 7th.
A Swedish Saab 340 AEW&C (Airborne Early Warning and Control) aircraft played a crucial role in the… pic.twitter.com/2TOCNppYku
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 9, 2025
Ukrainian sources reported that the Su-35 was likely shot down either by a Dutch-supplied F-16 using a long-range AIM-120 AMRAAM missile or by a surface-to-air missile system.
If confirmed, it would mark one of the first documented air-to-air kills by a Ukrainian-operated F-16 against a Russian Su-35, according to Bild.
According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the downing of the Su-35 raises the total number of Russian aircraft destroyed since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 to 414.
The Russian government has not issued an official comment on the report. However, a video later surfaced showing the Russian Aerospace Forces’ recovery mission to rescue the pilot.
A downed Russian Su-35 fighter jet lies wrecked in a field near Kursk after being shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force yesterday. pic.twitter.com/IX6517FSrO
— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) June 8, 2025
The shootdown follows Ukraine’s June 1 drone campaign known as “Operation Spiderweb,” in which the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims to have hit over 40 Russian aircraft. Drones targeted multiple air bases across Russia, damaging or destroying strategic bombers like the Tu-95 and Tu-22M3.
