• Ukraine claims to have downed three Russian Su-34 fighter jets.

• Unconfirmed reports suggested Ukraine could have used a Western-donated Patriot missile system.

• Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman, Yuri Ihnat, said it was  a “brilliantly planned operation.”

Ukraine claims to have downed three Russian Su-34 fighter jets on the southern front on Friday.

“Today, at noon, on the southern front, we destroyed three Russian Su-34 bomber aircraft,” Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman, Yuri Ihnat, told Ukrainian TV that it was a “brilliantly planned operation.”

He added that such a success was rare, and a fighter jet like the Su-34 “has not been included in our positive statistics for a long time.”

Russia did not comment on the reports, but some milbloggers acknowledged that there had been losses, The Moscow Times reported.

The reports could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the Russian jets around Kherson, an area that has seen an uptick in fighting in recent months, in his nightly address, Reuters reported.

Russia still occupies large swathes of the eastern side of the Dnipro river, after having largely retreated from the western side last year.

Analysts suggested that Ukraine could have used a Patriot missile system, a Western-supplied weapon which has a range of up to 100 miles, that could have been launched from the western side of the river, per Reuters.

Ukraine claimed in May that it used a Patriot missile system to take out 5 Russian aircraft in 5 minutes.

The Su-34s, made by Russian company Sukhoi, are a key part of the Russian Air Force. They are believed to cost millions of dollars, with Inhat claiming that one cost “at least 50 million dollars.”

Oleshchuk said the jets were attacked in revenge after Ukrainian forces discovered wreckage from a downed Shahed drone fired by Russia, on which “Die, bitches!” was written in Russian.

Russia is believed to have had 155 Su-34s before it began its invasion of Ukraine, of which at least 20 have been reported to have been shot down, The New Voice of Ukraine said.

The reports of Ukraine’s latest successful attack come as it was confirmed on Friday that the Netherlands will deliver 18 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine for the first time.

Ukraine has long been requesting the fighter jets from its Western allies.

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