Russia has lost another Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack jet, according to a brief statement from prominent Russian military blogger Fighterbomber.
The post did not specify whether the incident occurred over Ukraine or within Russian territory.
“A Su-25 crashed. The pilot was rescued. Everything is fine,” the blogger wrote, offering no further context or details.
The Su-25, a Soviet-era close air support jet, remains a key element of Russia’s frontline aviation. However, the platform’s age has increasingly raised concerns. Many of the aircraft currently in service are approaching 40 years old, contributing to a growing number of technical malfunctions and non-combat losses.
While the Russian Ministry of Defense has not issued an official statement, open-source monitoring group Oryx has documented over 40 confirmed losses of Su-25s since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The latest incident underscores ongoing attrition within Russia’s tactical aviation fleet, which has faced mounting pressure in the prolonged war. Ukraine’s expanding air defense capabilities—bolstered by Western-supplied systems—and the operational tempo of daily sorties have further strained Russia’s aging airframes.
Russia no longer manufactures the Su-25 aircraft, and its domestic aviation industry currently lacks the capacity to restart production at scale. As a result, each aircraft lost narrows the options for sustaining ground attack missions across contested areas.
While the precise cause of the incident remains unknown, recurring mechanical failures and limited maintenance infrastructure have been recurring challenges for Russian air operations. These factors have contributed to a series of crashes and emergency landings involving older aircraft types.