'Second Tu-22M3 Plane Turns Around, Flies Away'

New details of a unique hunt for a Russian strategic bomber have emerged.

Ukraine could shoot down 2 enemy strategic planes, but the one that was flying second, fled after "trouble" with the first.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, said this on air of Radio Svaboda.

According to him, the shooting down distance was about 300 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and "this is really a landmark operation".

"Probably, when Putin will comment on what happened to his strategic bomber, he will say 'it fell.' We can state - yes, we have successfully conducted an operation of the MID in co-operation with the Air Force, and it is an effective operation. For the first time, a strategic aircraft was destroyed during a combat mission in the air during the full-scale invasion. Another plane that was following it was forced to turn around, and this means that a number of missiles were not fired at Ukraine," Yusov said.

He added that the destruction of the bomber aircraft was a kind of repeat of the operation of destroying the A50 with error correction work carried out.

"This time we are talking about a distance of more than 300 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. This is a really landmark operation," Yusov said.

Destruction of the Tu-22M3 Plane: On What Is Known

On April 19, a Russian Air Force Tu-22M3 aircraft crashed to the ground during a flight in Russia's Stavropol region. The Russian Defence Ministry said that the aircraft fell due to a technical malfunction.

The MID said that Ukraine for the first time had destroyed a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber in the air. The S-200 SAM system was used for this purpose.

As a result of the downing of the Tu-22M3 bomber with the S-200 SAM system, one of the pilots was killed. Two others were taken to hospital. One more is being searched for.