Ukrainians reportedly shot down eight Russian aircraft in a single day as multiple videos of Russian jets plummeting down in a fireball went viral on social media. A video showed Ukrainians cheering and applauding as they shot two Russian aircraft in the Chernihiv and Mykolaiv oblasts. Videos of survived and captured Russian pilots of the shot-down aircraft being questioned by the Ukrainian authorities also went viral.
The captured Russian pilots were heard saying that they were just 'following orders' to their Ukrainian captors at gunpoint. In one of the videos, Ukrainians claimed to have taken down the Russian SU-34 jet, which was flown by Major Krasnoyarsk, the Russian pilot, who was appreciated by President Putin for his military operations in Syria in 2016.
Krasnoyarsk reportedly parachuted off and survived the crashing of the Russian SU-34 jet and was captured by the Ukrainians. He was seen in a blood-stained shirt with a bandage around his neck. After Krasnoyarsk's bloodied pictures went viral on the internet, another image emerged in which he was pictured alongside Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from 2016.
'What You Have Done will be a Feud for Centuries'
Multiple videos of Ukrainian soldiers talking to the captured Russian pilot popped up on social media. In one of those, Krasnoyarsk was seen sitting against a wall with a blindfold as the Ukrainian forces questioned him, telling him that the destruction he caused will be a feud for centuries.
The captured pilot claimed he was not aware of the same and 'went nuts' when he saw there was a real war against the civilian population. Another video showed Ukrainian soldiers trying to take a selfie alongside the wounded Russian pilot.
Another video showed a Russian pilot in an orange jumpsuit kneeling down with his hands behind his head. Local reports claimed he had parachuted out of his SU-30SM multi-role aircraft which was shot down by a Ukrainian missile over the Mikolayiv region of eastern Ukraine, around 40 miles from Kherson.
The captured pilot told his name and informed his captors that he was a flight commander with Russian military unit 59882 flying out of the Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea.
It is important to note here that the release of such videos online appears to breach the Geneva Convention which prohibits using POW for propaganda purposes.
