Ukraine says it shot down Russian strategic bomber after strike kills nine

Al Jazeera:

Ukraine’s air force says it shot down a Russian strategic bomber with antiaircraft missiles for the first time since the war began in 2022.

The warplane was downed in Russian airspace, 300km (186 miles) from Ukraine’s border, on Friday after it took part in a long-range air strike that killed at least nine people in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk.

The Ministry of Defence said the plane was returning to its base in Russia after having fired missiles at Ukraine overnight.

“For the first time, antiaircraft missile units of the air force, in cooperation with the defence intelligence of Ukraine, destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber,” Ukraine’s military said in a statement on Friday.

Russia commonly uses the bomber to fire cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets from inside its own airspace.