Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and military officials said the country’s forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter jets on the southern front on Friday, hailing it as a success in the 22-month war.

The Russian military does not mention anything about the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested that US-supplied Patriot missiles were likely used.

Reuters cannot independently confirm this information.

“Today at noon in the southern sector…minus three Russian Su-34 fighters!”, Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk wrote in Telegram.

BBC spokesman Yuriy Ignat called it a “brilliantly planned operation” on national television.

“We haven’t had the Su-34 in our statistics for some time,” he said, noting that the model is one of Russia’s most advanced bombers and other attack aircraft.

In a video speech at night, Zelensky praised the anti-aircraft units of the Odesa region for shooting down planes in the Kherson region.

The region was occupied in the early days of Moscow’s invasion of Moscow in February 2022. Ukrainian forces tried to recapture this territory and in November took positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.

The Russian magazine Eurasia Daily reported that the Ukrainian version is plausible. Kyiv could launch Patriot missiles with a range of up to 160 km at high-altitude targets on the west bank of the Dnieper.

Ukrainian aviation expert Valery Romanenko told Ukrainian Radio NV that he believes that, most likely, Russian planes shot down the Patriot missiles.

“It was a situation where the Russians…dropped up to 100 bombs to the south. Three of them flew together and were caught. They did not take into account that the Patriot has a range of 160 km for aerodynamic purposes,” said Romanenko.

Ukraine’s successes have become rarer since a year ago its forces made major gains in recapturing Russian-controlled territories in the northeast and south.

The counteroffensive launched in June in the east and south made limited progress. Zelenskyy acknowledged that progress was slower than he had hoped, but rejected claims by top military general Valery Zaluzhny that the war had entered an “attrition” phase that required a change in tactics.