Ukraine claims downing Russia's SU-25 plane as Moscow-Kyiv war enters day 49

Ukraine continues to put a stiff resistance against the Russian forces as the Moscow-Kyiv war has entered day 49. As per General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Air Force has shot down Russia's Su-25 aircraft. Pointing out that due to weather conditions the occupiers have drastically curtailed the use of plane, Ukraine claimed that 'we will win this war".

The General Staff further stated that the enemy continues to launch rocket-bomb attacks against civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions and that air reconnaissance is something the Russian forces are good at. According to Ukraine, the Russian Federation has claimed a "yellow level of terrorism threat" along Ukrainian border and in the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula and that these steps are likely to justify the movement of the flow of Russian military equipment, weapons and soldiers into Ukraine.

Partial blockade and artillery shelling on Kharkiv continues

The Ukrainian armed forces also remarked that a battalion of around 400 persons was organised in the Leningrad region, which is made up entirely of combat-trained soldiers. It claimed that they were sent to Ukraine to reinforce a battalion of the 58th general army. The General Staff also said that the partial blockade and artillery shelling on Kharkiv continues and the enemy is able to establish units of the so-called "people's militia" in some temporarily held districts.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the opponent continues to attack Mariupol from the Donetsk region and that the enemy is trying to take possession of individual communities in the South Buzky direction but to no avail. Over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian soldiers have withstood six enemy attacks, destroyed two units of vehicle equipment, and destroyed three enemy artillery systems on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

'Invasion is proceeding according to plan': Putin

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to keep attacking Ukraine until his country's objectives are achieved. He stated that peace discussions had come to a halt and that the invasion, now in its sixth week, was proceeding as per the plan, according to BBC. Putin's remarks on the crisis were his first in over a week as he has kept a lower profile recently than he did during the early days of the war.

Image: AP