What could have shot down Russian Tu-22M bomber: military expert suggests

He said this on Espreso TV.

"As for the destruction of the Russian Tu-22M3, we can only speculate on how exactly this could have happened. In order for the destruction to be possible at the declared distance of more than 300 kilometers from the state border, the S-200 had to be so radically redesigned that nothing should have remained of this old Soviet complex. Even the 5B27 anti-aircraft missile, which can fly so far, also had to be redesigned. That is, to change the warhead, to make better electronics, to increase the range," Kyrychevskyi explained.

According to the military expert, the Soviet S-200 system is a stationary system, and it had to be made mobile.

"It had to be such a radical redesign that it was essentially a new complex. Not to mention the fact that the Soviet S-200 system is a stationary system, and it had to be made mobile. That is, this is a completely new and unique development that has better characteristics than the Soviet S-200, which will have to be scaled up. In order for the enemy to have less information about how this historic event happened and to prevent it from happening again, only assumptions should be made in the information space," Kyrychevskyi added.

• On the morning of April 19, a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber firing Kh-22/Kh-32 missiles at Ukraine crashed in the Stavropol region of the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed the downing aircraft in cooperation with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.