Despite a promise by the Poroshenko government of a ceasefire for 40 km around the downed Malaysia Airlines MH17, warplanes have been active daily in the area, and today two Su-25 fighters were shot down over Dmytrivka, east of Donetsk.
Rebels confirmed the two downings, saying they shot down the planes with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. Such incidents have been increasingly common as Ukraine has turned to airstrikes in their “anti-terrorist operation.”
Equally common to rebels shooting down a Ukrainian warplane is Ukraine trying to blame Russia for directly doing it, and once again today officials claimed the anti-aircraft fire came from Russian territory, though as usual they offered no evidence of that assessment.
There were questions as to whether or not the rebels used shoulder-fired missiles or a more advanced 9k37 Buk. Rebels confirmed they had a Buk vehicle, though the commander quoted said he believes it was sent to Russia after the MH17 incident.
