It has not been confirmed if this is one of the new Su-34Ms. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation recently announced 4 upgraded Su-34s. with rear-hemisphere scanning, radar would be deployed in Eastern Ukraine.
According to the director-general of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, Yuriy Slyusar, the Su-34M has more than double the air-to-ground capability of the original Su-34. The upgraded aircraft has three different kinds of sensors. This includes the UKR-RT capsule for enhanced surveillance, camera UKR-OE, and UKR-RL, which are all integrated with the aperture radar.
“Russian invaders from the air defense shot down their own plane, which was flying in the sky over Alchevsk,” Ukrainian news outlet dialog.ua reports. They went on to claim the “friendly fire” incident could have taken place on Sunday. And that during Ukraine’s launch of targeted attacks on military depots Russia shot the wrong plane.
