A plane belonging to the Russian aerobatic team “Russian Knights” was allegedly destroyed in a drone attack on Russia’s Kushchevskaya airbase, located in the Krasnodar Territory. The information was published by the Militarnyi website.
The successful attack took place on the night of May 19, and the following day, low-quality satellite images of the airfield began to circulate. These images revealed a damaged combat aircraft, which was identified as a Su-27 or Su-35, as both models are almost identical externally.
Now, high-quality images from Planet Labs, published by Radio Liberty, show in more detail the result of the attack. The photos reveal damaged aircraft, including the Su-34 front-line bomber and the Su-27 (or Su-35) and Su-30 fighters.
The most attention is focused on an aircraft designated as the Su-27, which features the distinctive livery of the “Russian Knights” aerobatic group. This group, created in 1991, uses single-seat Su-27P and two-seat Su-27UB aircraft. Since 2016, the team has also received Su-30SM fighters and, from 2019, it began receiving Su-35S fighters, which are visually similar to the Su-27P on satellite images.
Therefore, it is currently impossible to determine precisely which aircraft from the “Russian Knights” group was hit at the Russian airfield in the Kuban.
This was the second drone strike on the Kushchevskaya military airfield in recent weeks.