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2022-02-24 05:30 | Kyiv | Holosiivs'kyi district, Demiyivka area, 27 Kozatska Street. The Ukrainian air force reportedly shot down one of its own Su-27 fighters on the night of of February 24, while the aircraft was performing an air patrol mission over Kiev. The aircraft was misidentified as a Russian fighter, as both countries notably deploy Su-27s while more advanced Su-27-derived aircraft such as the Su-34 and Su-35 make up the large majority of the Russian fighter fleet. This is far from the only report of friendly fire in the conflict, with unconfirmed reports indicating Ukrainian aircraft accidentally bombarded civilian areas when attempting to engage a Russian low-flying helicopter. The loss of a Su-27 comes follows the flight of another fighter of the same class to Romania on the same day, with Ukrainian air defence sites and aircraft being made priority targets by Russian units and widely speculated to have declining morale. The Ukrainian Air Force also lost two of its fourteen Su-24M strike fighters in the opening hours of the conflict when they reportedly attempted to strike Russian backed separatist targets near the Russian border. Ukrainian Su-27s have been prone to a high number of accidents, with two crashing in October and December 2018 one of which killed an American co-pilot while a third crashed into a road sign while landing in 2020 taking it out of commission. Previously a Ukrainian Su-27 crash in 2002 killed 77 civilians.
