The Ukrainian forces shot down an enemy aircraft over Kyiv in the early hours of Friday, which then crashed into a residential building and set it on fire, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister said.
The incident took place about 24 hours after Russia invaded the country by air, land and sea, a mission that President Vladimir Putin claimed was to ‘demilitarize’ its neighbor. Footage of the incident which was shared online apparently displayed the plane being downed as fiery debris hailed down on apartment buildings on the capital city’s riverbank. It was unclear if the aircraft was occupied. According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, at least three people in the building were injured after the crash, one of which is in critical condition.
Reportedly, Ukrainian troops are fighting Russian forces in the towns of Dymer and Ivankiv near Kyiv, having destroyed a bridge crossing the Teteriv river and halting the Russian advance. The counterattack came after several loud explosions were heard over Kyiv around 4 a.m. The blasts came from Ukrainian air defenses firing at the Russian aircraft, according to Herashchenko. Russian forces were stopped from advancing further into Ukraine from most directions, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday morning. The Ukrainian president said that Russian rocket strikes have resumed as of 4 a.m. local time and are being fired at both military and civilian targets.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported on Twitter that as of 3 a.m., Ukraine had destroyed 7 Russian aircrafts, 6 helicopters, more than 30 tanks and approximately 800 Russian soldiers were killed by Ukrainian forces. However, Russian forces have thus far destroyed four Ukrainian planes, four drones and disabled 83 military facilities, according to reports from Moscow. ‘Overall, as a result of strikes by the Russian armed forces, 83 ground-based objects of Ukrainian military infrastructure have been kncked out of action. Since the start of the military operation, two Su-27 and two Su-24 planes, one helicopter and four Bayraktar TB-2 drones of the Ukrainian armed forces have been shot down’, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, according to state news agency TASS.
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