The Russian Aerospace Force’s Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name Fullback) fighter-bomber aircraft was shot down over Ukraine on Saturday, according to a popular Telegram channel reportedly run by a former Russian military pilot.

The broadcaster Fighterbomber apparently paid tribute to the crashed Su-34 with a black-and-white photo of the multi-role aircraft and the caption “Earth is heaven, brothers.”

The Russian Defense Ministry made no official statement on Saturday about the suspected loss of the Su-34, nor did the Ukrainian Defense Ministry comment on it. However, other pro-Moscow Telegram channels have provided additional details, claiming the plane was shot down about 50 km (30 miles) from the front line and that it was a US-made F-16 Fighting Falcon that was the Russian one I shot down a fighter plane. Bomber.

The Russian pilot did not survive, the Milbloggers added.

F-16 Fighting Falcon wore its talons

NATO members Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway pledged to provide more than 90 F-16s earlier this year after President Joe Biden approved the transfer of the U.S.-made multi-role fighter jet.

The first dozen planes arrived in Ukraine in August. Although the Fighting Falcons have already been used to repel a Russian missile and drone attack, if confirmed, this would be the first time the U.S.-made aircraft has achieved an aerial victory against a manned fighter.

The Sukhoi Su-34 multi-role attack aircraft is a twin-engine, two-seat, all-weather, supersonic, medium-range fighter-bomber originally developed in the 1980s for the Soviet Air Force. It was one of the Kremlin’s many programs that were put on hold after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis that followed.

The program was later revived and the Su-34 officially entered service in 2014. It is considered one of the Kremlin’s most capable fighters, and the loss would be significant as Moscow struggles to maintain production of new aircraft.

News comes from an unlikely source

Russia’s “milbloggers,” who regularly post on the social messaging app Telegram about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, have been surprisingly outspoken about the Kremlin’s setbacks in its so-called “special military operation,” while even being critical of its handling of it expressed war.

This was certainly the case on Saturday morning when the Telegram channel VDV for Honesty and Justice warned: “Soon there will be more such losses. NATO has sent F-16s to hunt,” adding, “As a result, our infantry losses will increase.”

What’s notable, however, is that the bloggers did not criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, but as with previous setbacks for the Russian military, the anger is directed at those directly overseeing the conduct of the war.

“The first open rejection of the Kremlin’s military policy came from military bloggers, and they have found a space in Russia’s public discourse where they can criticize the military, but not Putin,” said Dr. Matthew Schmidt, professor of national security at the University of New Haven. “They criticize the military and claim it is essentially incompetent, but we are pro-war and pro-Putin, and he must fix the military’s incompetence.”

If the Su-34 shooting proves to be true, Milbloggers will likely continue to be very vocal about the situation in Ukraine.

“This is a classic episode that they are in, and the bloggers claim that it reflects the incompetence of the generals and that Putin needs to fire them and find new ones,” Schmidt added.

News from the front continues to spread on Telegram faster than the Kremlin can take an official position or, as in this case, put its own stamp on the story.

“Smartphones and social media give everyone a megaphone to instantly reach billions of people,” said social media and technology analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. “This is particularly a problem for totalitarian regimes when they rely so heavily on lies and distorting the truth.”