Russian Air Defenses Still Likely to Shoot Down Own Aircraft Over Crimea

Russia's air defense still has a problem of shooting down its own air forces over Crimea because of continuing problems with its “friend or foe” target detection and recognition systems.

According to the Atesh partisan movement, in the face of constant missile and UAV attacks, air defense commanders in occupied areas of Ukraine including Crimea, are forced to identify and engage targets manually. This often results in striking on their own friendly air targets.

The guerrillas learned that in the last two weeks alone, the 12th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of the 31st Air Defense Division of the Russian Federation had shot down two Russian military aircraft.

On March 28, the division's Pantsir medium-range air defense system, deployed in the area of Inkerman Bay in Sevastopol, shot down one of its own Su-27 fighter aircraft.

Then, on April 10, an Mi-24 attack helicopter was shot down on the western coast of Crimea by another Pantsir air defense system, which was deployed near the Saki air base, according to the Atesh movement guerrillas.

The military personnel responsible for such events continue to serve and are not being punished. At the same time, the underground asks the question:

“Is it possible that the air defense system of the Russian Armed Forces shoots down Russian aircraft deliberately, taking advantage of their impunity?

“Could they be doing it to fight racism or to get a good bonus?”

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