The Russian military took down its own drone after mistakenly identifying it as Ukrainian, according to reports by international media.
The incident happened in eastern Crimea on Sunday amid a heavy exchange of drone and artillery attacks between the two forces.
Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian head of the annexed region, initially stated that a Ukrainian drone was jammed and taken down by Russian electronic warfare equipment.
He posted a photo of the debris from the destroyed platform, but it immediately caught the attention of international defense analysts.
Foreign Policy Research Institute senior fellow Rob Lee noticed a close resemblance between the downed drone and the Iranian Mohajer-6 that Russia is using in the war.
He pointed out striking similarities in the wing and claimed that the drone was probably destroyed by Russian air defenses.
Looks as though an Iranian Mohajer-6 UCAV operated by Russia crashed in Crimea. Possible that it was downed by Russian air defenses or EW. https://t.co/Xz4s291TzWhttps://t.co/ctG0HyrWoD pic.twitter.com/jRCD1ODr5q
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 6, 2023
A Recurring Incident
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last year, Moscow’s forces have been the subject of international criticism and mockery for their combat failures.
In September 2022, a Russian hypersonic missile meant to strike Kyiv was inadvertently dropped from a MiG-31 aircraft and struck a city inside Russia.
A booster was reportedly found in the wreckage, suggesting that the missile either misfired or was accidentally dropped.
After several months, a friendly-fire incident occurred involving a Ka-52 attack helicopter.
The Ukrainian Air Force posted a photo of the Russian chopper, which was allegedly shot down by a Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile system operated by Russia.
