Russian defenses shoot down four Ukrainian fighter jets: MoD
3 Min Read
While the Ukrainian president had reported earlier this week that the Ukrainian defenses had shot down 3 Russian fighter jets, Reuters reports that they were unable to verify the claims.
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A Russian state flag flies above a hammer and sickle at the State Duma, lower parliament chamber, headquarters in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 (AP)
Russia's defense ministry announced on Sunday that its air defenses successfully intercepted and shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft within the last 24 hours, Reuters reported.
According to the Russian defense ministry's daily dispatch, three Su-27 fighter jets and one Su-24 tactical bomber were downed in the Zaporizhye and Dnipro in southeastern Ukraine.
The dispatch, however, did not provide further details on the operation.
This comes two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed that Kiev had shot down three Russian fighter-bomber jets.
Despite the conflicting reports from both sides, Reuters has been unable to independently verify the battlefield claims made by either Russia or Ukraine.
Read more: NATO prepping for 'high-intensity conflict' with Russia: Czech Rep.
In a recently released article, renowned US journalist Seymour Hersh assured that peace negotiations between top Russian and Ukrainian generals Valery Gerasimov and Valerii Zaluzhnyi respectively are currently underway which include a potential security of Crimea and another four former regions of Ukraine as part of Russia.
Included in the potential deal would also be Russia's agreement to Ukraine’s accession to NATO provided that NATO troops are not stationed on its territory and only defensive weaponry is located there.
According to Hersh, both Russia and Ukraine agree that the persistence of war is illogical and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be with an agreement that fixates borders according to where the troops are stationed after the end of peace negotiations.
Hersh cited a US official involved in the top negotiations as saying: "This was not a spur-of-the-moment event," adding: "This was carefully orchestrated by Zaluzhny. The message was the war was over and we want out. To continue it would destroy the next generation of the citizens of Ukraine."
On the other hand, the Biden administration is strongly opposing the peace deal while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remains the "wild card" but has been allegedly told that "this is a military-to-military problem to solve and the talks will go on with or without you".
"The White House is totally against the proposed agreement," the US official said, noting: "But it will happen. Putin has not disagreed."
Read more: Ukraine's counteroffensive was doomed from the start and the US knew
