Russia destructs its plane over Tokmak - Melitopol mayor

This was reported by Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer of the Information Resistance group, on Espreso.

"According to this information, last night near Tokmak, a Su-35 multifunctional fighter jet was indeed shot down by Russian air defense systems. Another thing is very interesting here: there is a general friend-or-foe system that helps to recognize whether it is a friendly or enemy aircraft. So, in general, the air defense system that shot it down was most likely an S-300, and the operators had to understand that it was their own plane," the expert explains.

According to him, the Su-35 is one of the most expensive production aircraft in the Russian Federation, and it is not often used for combat missions, as, for example, the Su-34 frontline bomber.

"It (Su-35 - ed.) was near Tokmak, which is actually near the contact line, which is a rather risky area, and this suggests that they are now carrying out operations even with the valuable aircraft they have available. This may indicate, on the one hand, a lack of serviceable combat-ready aircraft of other types to perform such combat missions, or that they have already reached the end of their service life, most of them need routine maintenance, and each such work takes a long time," Kovalenko added.

Earlier, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, spoke about this during a telethon.

"Tokmak and Molochansk are frontline towns that are currently prioritized for liberation. Today at half past two in the morning, something happened to an airplane that is constantly terrorizing the Ukrainian military on the Zaporizhzhia front line. Something loud happened to it, it "landed" near Tokmak," the mayor said.

Fedorov reminded that neither Tokmak nor Molochansk has an airfield.

"That's why it was falling extremely fast and landed there. This can most likely be interpreted as self-destruction. We see it not only in the plane we are talking about now, we see it regularly. For example, over the past week we know at least 5 examples of Russia liquidating its military," he added.

The monitor channel also confirms the crash.

"The good news - minus Su-35 by Russian air defense forces at night over Tokmak," the report said.

The telegram channel of the Melitopol guerrilla unit named Hnyla Chereshnia also posted a video of the crash.

Photo: Screenshot of the video

The Russian public channel Fighterbomber, run by a former Russian military pilot, emphasized that the Su-35 pilot did not survive. The administrator did not specify where the Russian pilot had died.

Photo: Fighterbomber

Signed: Eternal flight to you, brother

The situation at the front near Tokmak

On September 23, the commander of the Tavria operational and strategic group of troops, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, said that the Ukrainian military had broken through the Russian army's defense near Verbove in Zaporizhzhia region.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War suggest that the Defense Forces may have made a breakthrough on the Robotyne - Verbove line in Zaporizhzhia.

On September 28, the General Staff reported that in the Zaporizhzhia direction, the Russian troops tried to regain the lost position near Robotyne, but had no success.

Roman Pohorilyi, the co-founder of DeepState, told Espreso TV channel that new Russian defense lines are appearing around Tokmak. The invaders are building positions and pouring concrete into the trenches.