Watch moment Russian fighter jet crashes after WING fell off during air raid mission on Ukraine
THIS is the dramatic moment a wing falls off a £15 million Russian warplane during a frontline mission over Ukraine's Donetsk region.
The pilot miraculously cheated death by ejecting before the Su-25 aircraft came tumbling to the ground.
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In the shocking video, the doomed warplane is seen spinning as it falls out of the sky above the Ukrainian city of Soledar.
The Russian aircraft's right wing is seen detached from the warplane, which bursts into flames and crashes into a field.
A fighter pilot is also visible, held up by a parachute.
It was initially assumed the Su-25 had been shot down.
Ukrainian media claimed the aircraft may have been downed by 'friendly fire' - an unguided missile from its partner plane.
Others suggested the cause may have been heat trap flares and possible missiles from the Su-25.
But given that there appears to be no giant explosion, which would be expected in the instance of a direct missile hit, experts on both sides now have a different theory.
Russia's Su-25 fleet is outdated - averaging over 40 years old - and have experienced multiple technical failures in the past, as reported by the Kyiv Post.
The pilot was reportedly rescued by Russian forces on the ground while under fire from Ukrainian drones.
An Mi-8 helicopter arrived at the crash site and evacuated him.
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Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomber cited 'destruction of the wing' as the cause of the crash.
"The pilot is in the hospital with a broken arm," the channel wrote.
It added: 'A commission will investigate what went wrong and determine who is to blame.'
Ukraine has not released an official statement about this incident.
The visible 'missiles' may be unignited heat trap flares designed to distract heat-seeking missiles away from the aircraft's engines, according to some sources.
Ukraine's Militarniy media outlet ruled out the possibilities of friendly fire and an exploding missile.
The channel said: 'The third possible reason is a defect in the aircraft's power structure that arose due to prolonged intensive use of the aircraft in combat operations or a manufacturing defect.
'This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the wing broke off at the moment of the turn, when it is subjected to the greatest loads.
'Another indirect confirmation may be that the operation of Russian attack aircraft, whose average age reaches 40 years, is associated with a significant number of emergency situations.'
Ukrainian war analyst Yury Butusov backed this theory, saying: 'At first it seems that it was shot down by its own pilot, the pilot of another aircraft.
'However, when viewed in slow motion, one can conclude that the Su-25's wing failed due to excessive overload and exhaustion of the attack aircraft's resources.'
The Su-25 is a Soviet, twin-engine, single-seat aircraft developed by Sukhoi in the late 1970s.
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