Ukrainian MiG-29 Shot Down in 'Air Battle,' Says Russia

A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet was destroyed in an air battle near Slavyansk, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a regular press briefing on Monday.

Konashenkov however did not reveal whether the MiG-29 was shot down by Russian aircraft or air defense systems

Slavyansk is a city in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. It was one of the focal points in the early stages of the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine as it was the first city to be seized by Russia-backed military troops.

The Russian military claimed they managed to shoot down two Ukrainian Su-24M bombers in the Kharkiv region on May 1. A day earlier, Konashenkov reported that Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft in the Kherson region.

On Monday, Russian air defense systems destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones in the areas of the settlements of Vesele, Borshchevo and Balakleya in the Kharkiv region, Kiselevka in the Kherson region, Mayak in the Zaporozhye region, Dokuchaev, Korsun and Khanzhinkovo ​​in the Donetsk People's Republic, and also in the area of ​​the city of Lugansk.

"Two Tochka-U tactical missiles were shot down near the village of Petrivske in the Luhansk People's Republic, and a Smerch missile was destroyed in the Donetsk region," the spokesman claimed.

He said that during the special operation, the Russian military destroyed 941 Ukrainian aircraft.

"In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed: 146 aircraft, 112 helicopters, 683 unmanned aerial vehicles, 281 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,756 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 316 multiple rocket launchers, 1,234 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 2,563 units of special military vehicles," Konashenkov said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine says a senior general in the Russian Army, Valery Gerasimov, may have been wounded in a Ukrainian strike. A statement from Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) said a pair of surprise bombardments hit Russian military command centers in the Izyum area of Kharkiv region overnight April 30-May 1. The main target was an army headquarters and the second was a headquarters for an airborne infantry unit, the statement said.