Ukrainian military confirmed that Russia shot down its Su-27 over Crimea amid "heightened readiness"

On March 28, in temporarily occupied Crimea, Russian air defense shot down its own fighter jet, the spokesperson of the Naval Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, said during a telethon.

"We confirm that this plane belonged to Russia and that it was destroyed by its forces. They had an alarm, they were on combat readiness. Here, the human factor – which we call inhuman regarding Russians – came into play... There was heightened combat readiness, someone wanted to get a medal for shooting down a plane, so they didn't bother to figure out if it was their own or someone else's," he said.

Pletenchuk said the fighter jet pilot was rescued. However, as the spokesperson of the Naval Forces noted, the plane was "practically destroyed."

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