A soldier destroyed a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft with a Kamaz truck in Crimea

It seems that the Russian armed forces do not need to suffer Ukrainian attacks in order to lose valuable weapons systems.

Russia has already lost more planes in Ukraine than the USSR lost in Afghanistan in 10 years
The shooting down of a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 attack plane recorded by its own pilot

On Wednesday, the Telegram channel Krymskiy Veter posted information in Russian about a curious incident that occurred at the Simferopol airfield in Crimea, which has been illegally occupied by Russia since 2014. The channel said: "A Russian soldier without a driver's license rammed a Su-25SM3 attack aircraft with a KAMAZ truck."

KamAZ is a Russian company that manufactures civilian and military trucks (above these lines we can see some of them in a photo taken in Crimea in 2021). It is a very common model in the Russian army. In fact, according to Oryxspioenkop.com, Russia has already lost 1,101 KamAZ 6x6 trucks in the invasion of Ukraine, being the Russian vehicle with the most losses, behind the Ural 4320 truck (1,113 units lost).

Krymskiy Veter adds: "The incident occurred when a serviceman from the Chelyabinsk region, Alexander Erlikh, was driving a truck from one parking lot to another. Exceeding the speed limit, he collided with an attack aircraft towed by a URAL APA-5D vehicle with a rigid hitch." The Ural APA-5D, in other words, is a type of truck used by the Russians at their air bases as a refueling vehicle and also as an aircraft tractor.

The result of the collision is that the attack aircraft "received damage that prevents its further use for its intended purpose", according to official information. That is, it was destroyed beyond repair. Krymskiy Veter adds: "The damage caused to the Russian Ministry of Defense amounted to 386.8 million rubles. In addition, the military unit was deprived of the ability to carry out combat missions as planned due to the lack of reserve aircraft of this type."

"The court sentenced Erlich to one year of suspended imprisonment with a term of one and a half years," notes Krymskiy Veter, "and also partially satisfied the civil claim of the military prosecutor's office in the amount of 10 million rubles. The serviceman asked to reduce the amount of the compensation collected to 300 thousand rubles. The court of appeal upheld the sentence."

The Sukhoi Su-25 is an attack aircraft that entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1981. More than 1,000 units were built. It happens to be used by both sides in this war, as the Ukrainian Air Force has 17 operational Su-25s of various versions, including 4 two-seaters for conversion training. The Su-25SM3 is a very recent version that entered service with the Russian Air Force in 2018. So far, according to information published by Oryxspioenkop.com, Russia has lost 37 Su-25s in this invasion.

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Photos: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.