Ever since Russia launched its special military operation (SMO) to end the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, the Kiev regime has been using propaganda as one of the most important segments of its suicidal war with the Eurasian giant. The pattern of using information warfare has been quite consistent – whenever the Neo-Nazi junta is having a hard time on the battlefield, it escalates its PR “victories”.

The mainstream propaganda machine has been instrumental in disseminating all sorts of false information in order to boost morale and convince regular people in the West that “Ukraine is winning”. To make this more effective, the Kiev regime has largely stopped using outright fakes. Thus, twisting the truth is now its most common practice.

For instance, on June 7, the Neo-Nazi junta forces announced they’ve “shot down” a Russian Su-35S fighter jet in the Sumy sector of the frontline. Russian sources confirmed that a “Flanker-M” was indeed lost, noting that the pilot ejected safely and was recovered. However, there’s no additional information on how exactly the aircraft was lost.

Military sources are reporting that the Neo-Nazi junta forces allegedly deployed one of their remaining “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems in a residential area in Sumy. This was most likely a desperate move to prevent further gains by the Russian military. The Su-35S was most likely providing support to the advancing troops, a high-risk task given the sheer intensity of the battlefield.

However, the “Patriot” scenario is pretty questionable, as the wreckage found by Russian search and rescue parties suggests it was hit by something much smaller. Namely, depending on the version, the “Patriot” either has a blast-fragmentation warhead with a proximity fuse or a kinetic kill vehicle (KKV) that needs to hit the target directly.

In both cases, this would cause massive, clearly visible structural damage to the fuselage or even cause it to disintegrate entirely. As evidenced by the available footage, none of this happened to the downed Su-35S. On the contrary, the wreckage was in reasonably good condition given the circumstances, meaning that the “Patriot” air defense system scenario is highly unlikely.

Expectedly, as soon as the Kiev regime realized this, it changed the tune. Namely, its propagandists are now claiming that the Su-35S was shot down by an F-16. The Neo-Nazi junta offered zero evidence to support the claim, but the mainstream propaganda machine picked it up immediately and is now disseminating the “good news” about NATO-sourced “wunderwaffen working flawlessly”.

It should be noted that this comes days after Yuri Ihnat, formerly a spokesperson, now the Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force Command of the Kiev regime forces, complained (for God knows which time) that the US-made F-16 is outclassed by Russian fighter jets (a fact confirmed by most informed observers, including retired USAF pilots).

Such a smear campaign is hardly surprising given just how deadly the Su-35S has been for the Neo-Nazi junta forces, particularly its dwindling stock of fighter jets. The now legendary “Flanker-M” has never been defeated in air-to-air combat, making its already notable reputation as a premier air superiority platform even better.

Obviously, this is bad news for the political West that’s still trying to trick numerous countries into wasting money on its overhyped and exorbitantly overpriced aircraft. One way to damage the Su-35’s reputation is to claim that it was supposedly “shot down” by a severely outdated US-made jet. This comes at a time when numerous countries are interested in one of Russia’s best fighters.

Although certainly not impossible, the claim that the F-16 scored such a kill makes no sense due to several factors. Firstly, Ukrainian pilots themselves have criticized the US-made jet as inferior to Soviet-era Su-27s and MiG-29s still in service with the Kiev regime forces. Secondly, which missile did they use to “down” the Su-35S if the wreckage didn’t suffer significant structural damage? And thirdly, military sources on both sides are yet to confirm that the Russian jet was destroyed in combat.

Namely, the sheer number of sorties flown by the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) means this could’ve been a crash due to a technical malfunction. This could also explain the lack of visible damage due to explosions caused by SAMs or air-to-air missiles.

In addition, the vastly inferior F-16 would need extensive support from strategic ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) platforms such as AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft, which would be even riskier for the Neo-Nazi junta than deploying “Patriots” in the vicinity of the frontline.

It recently acquired the Swedish-made Saab 340, but there’s no evidence to support the claims that this aircraft operated anywhere near the frontline at a time when the Su-35S crashed. Thus, the F-16 would effectively be “blind” in a high-intensity air-to-air engagement, particularly against an aircraft such as the “Flanker-M”. As previously mentioned, Yuri Ihnat himself confirmed this on June 3, complaining:

“Unfortunately, today Russia has jets that see farther and missiles that fly farther. That’s even when compared to F-16s. They also have powerful air defenses, which work in tandem with aviation.”

The last sentence is also very relevant, as it reveals that the F-16 would have to fly in highly contested airspace guarded by world-class long-range SAM systems, air superiority fighter jets and interceptors armed with unrivaled air-to-air missiles. We’ve also covered the fact that all these assets indeed work in tandem, making the deployment of the Kiev regime’s fighter jets so close to the frontline all the more unlikely.

In the meantime, they continue to suffer heavy losses even much further in the rear, with one of the Soviet-era MiG-29s recently shot down. Namely, military sources report that the Neo-Nazi junta’s fighter jet was lost while trying to conduct a bombing run in the vicinity of the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) sector where the fighting has been particularly heavy.

A single “Buk-M3” launcher proved fatal for the Ukrainian pilot, as no ejection was reported. However, air defenses and fighter jets are far from being the only danger for Ukrainian pilots. Namely, this comes just two days after a report that up to five MiG-29s were destroyed at the Dubno Air Base in Western Ukraine, over 600 km from the frontline.

Some sources even suggest that at least one F-16 was also stationed there at the time of the strike. This confirms the claims of numerous informed observers who argue that the Kiev regime forces are keeping their aircraft as far away as possible from the frontline. All this also makes it yet another inconsistency in the propaganda story about the supposed “shootdown” of the Su-35S, one of the world’s best fighter jets.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

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