Wagner mercenary boss suggests Russia may have downed its own military aircraft

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

49 minutes ago

The head of Russia’s feared Wagner private army suggested Sunday that four Russian military aircraft that reportedly crashed in a region that borders Ukraine may have been shot down by Russia’s own forces.

Russian officials have not commented on reports in Russian conventional and social media that two fighter planes — an Su-34 and an Su-35 — and two military Mi-8 helicopters crashed in the Bryansk region on Saturday.

State news agency Tass cited unspecified emergency services sources as saying the Su-34 and one helicopter crashed. Other sources, including Vladimir Rogov, the head of a Russian collaborationist organization in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia province, claimed four aircraft went down.

All of them reportedly belonged to the same military air group.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russian-military-aircraft-crash-wagner-5c6dac044a8c193de91c5577dedab18c

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[Igel]

1. Odds aren't in favor of that.

Probably 2 were shot down (as claimed) by Ukr, others most likely just fell out of the sky because of crap piloting or crap parts/maintenance.

Rogov claims what he can. Pretty-boy Rogozhin likes to fling poo.

[Eugene]

2. And the Moskva was sunk by someone smoking near the ship's magazine.

[Grins]

3. "...Russia's feared Wagner private army..."?

Feared? Not so much.

[Beastly Boy]

4. I am having an increasingly hard time taking Prigozhin at his words.

It is clear to me that Prigozhin has an issue, perhaps even a power struggle, with Russia's Ministry of Defense, with Putin, rather badly, playing mediator between the two.

Everything Priozhin stated earlier, including threats to withdraw from Bakhmut, expletive-filled theatrics bashing the minister of defense Shoigu and chief of staff Gerasimov, and now hinting at grossly negligent incompetence of Russia's own forces in downing the four Russian aircraft in one day, are being proven to not make much sense at their face value, but make perfect sense as Prigozhin undermining the authority of Russia's Ministry of defense.

He is an opportunist, spinning each defeat the Russian regular troops suffer to make his detractors in the Kremlin look bad. I am not taking him at his word, but I am sure glad to see evidence of Russia's high command having its internal issues that are spilling out in the open.

[ColinC]

5. who's side is this guy on?

[Shipwack]

9. His own, like all Oligarchs... nt

[NullTuples]

6. I assume a simple "mistake" is less embarrassing than the enemy being successful?

[toroyoung]

7. This Wagner guy is gonna be found "suicided"

Likely after staying in a high floor of a hotel.

[jmowreader]

8. That's going to be a FUN Article 32 hearing!

Or whatever the Russians call a pre-trial investigation...

"Captain Volga, on 13 May 2023 your subunit engaged and destroyed one Sukhoi-34 fighter, one Sukhoi-35 fighter and two Mil-8 helicopters belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defence. This high crime is punishable by death by firing squad. Before we take you out back and shoot you, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"Fuck you, asshole...I'm not the one who started a fucking war against someone who uses the same equipment we do! You knew this was going to happen sooner or later! For fuck's sake man, don't you know the official motto of anti-aircraft forces the world over is If It Flies It Dies? Don't fucking blame me when the inevitable happens!"

And in fact, it WAS inevitable. Ukraine was a Soviet Republic, and kept all the equipment within their borders when the Soyuz broke up. The only amazing thing here is that there aren't red-on-red attacks on a regular basis.

[TomSlick]

10. Occam's Razor suggests that the Ukrainians shot down the Russian planes.

There is no need for complicated conspiracy theories. The Ukrainians have sufficient air defense assets to shot down threatening aircraft.