Russian Armed Forces reportedly have suffered heavy losses with 11,000 men dead and over 1000 pieces of large hardware lost, including modern combat aircraft.
On top of that, visually confirmed losses of the Russian newest Su-34 (NATO reporting name: Fullback) fighter-bomber now exceed 4 aircraft during its invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on Sunday reported that Russian Su-34s struck at Ukrainian military infrastructure and civilian residents in Kharkiv, Chernihiv during an invasion.
According to the observer under the Oryx nickname, one Fullback was shot down on March 1st, two more were shot down on March 5th and one yesterday, March 6th.
It is worth noting that the number of downed Russian aircraft may be more, but at the moment there is no photo or video confirmed of them.
In a statement, the Ukrainian General Staff said that since the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian army has destroyed 46 Russian-owned aircraft and 68 helicopters.
The Sukhoi Su-34 is a modern Russian strike jet that was designed as a replacement for the Soviet-era Su-24 ‘Fencer’ in Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) service. It is equipped with 12 hardpoints for the carriage of a range of air-to-surface and air-to-air weaponry, including unguided, or ‘dumb’, weapons.
Based on the Su-27 Flanker air superiority fighter, the Su-34 has an armoured cockpit for side-by-side seating of its two-person crew.
The Su-34 is designed primarily for tactical deployment against ground and naval targets (tactical bombing/attack/interdiction roles, including against small and mobile targets) on solo and group missions in daytime and at night, under favourable and adverse weather conditions and in a hostile environment with counter-fire and electronic warfare (EW) counter-measures deployed, as well as for aerial reconnaissance.