Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv destroys Russian warplane in blow for Putin’s forces as Zelensky unveils F-16s

Ukraine destroyed a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft and an ammunition depot at an airfield some 165 miles from the frontline of the war, Kyiv ’s military intelligence unit has claimed.

The attack on the Morozovsk airfield in Russia ’s Rostov region on Saturday is also likely to have damaged two other Su-34 warplanes, Ukraine’s military said, citing satellite imagery.

It came as Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled the first Western-supplied F-16 warplanes to arrive in Ukraine, and asked for Nato allies to help protect them.

“These jets are in our sky and today you see them,” the Ukrainian president said from an undisclosed airbase, standing in front of two of the jets as others flew overhead.

Mr Putin has warned that Moscow could consider launching strikes at facilities in Nato countries if they host the warplanes used in Ukraine.

The arrival of the planes will bolster Ukrainian morale on the frontline, battered by incessant Russian strikes. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said the arrival of the F-16s “means that more occupiers will be neutralised.”