"We fired two missiles": S-300 air defense system crew commander talks about the destruction of an F-16

January 12 2026 13 958 15

A Russian Armed Forces S-300 air defense missile system crew destroyed an American F-16 fighter jet in the Air Defense Zone. According to the crew commander, the operation to destroy the aircraft had been planned for a long time.

We'd been planning this operation for a long time. We were hunting it down, waiting. Our enemy praises these planes highly because they're indestructible. It wasn't the first shot—we used two missiles. We cut it down with the first, and finished it off with the second.

- told the officer.

As a reminder, military analysts estimate that the Ukrainian Armed Forces currently have no more than ten American F-16 fighter jets remaining, which were previously transferred to Kyiv by European allies. Some of these aircraft were destroyed by "friendly fire" from American Patriot air defense systems.

Several combat vehicles were destroyed with the help of Russian air defense systems.

Kyiv acknowledges that American fighters are not used in close proximity to the front lines due to the high activity of Russian fighters and the effectiveness of the air defense system. F-16s are primarily used by the enemy to repel attacks by Russian Geran-2 UAVs.

It should be emphasized that the latest modification of the S-300V4 air defense missile system is currently being actively used in the zone of the Russian Federation's special military operation in Ukraine. Its longest-range anti-aircraft missile, the 9M82MDE, has a range of 380–400 kilometers when intercepting enemy aircraft and can shoot down not only aerodynamic but also ballistic targets.

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prior

-4

12 January 2026 10: 12

Just as in this article, the Russian Armed Forces' S-300 air defense system crew destroyed an American F-16 fighter in the air defense zone, Ukrainian air defense crews are destroying all of our Geran missiles, cruise missiles, and even Kalibr missiles.
No time, no place, no facts, nothing concrete. Even a photo is just for illustration.
No. Of course I believe it. How can you not believe it?
What else can one do? Everything is written so convincingly.
1. JD1979
  
  +6
  
  12 January 2026 12: 36
  Yeah, right, the air defense crew was too lazy to hop on their bike and take photos of the downed plane just for you. And they forgot to tape the camera to the missiles. And they didn't realize that some Andrey Yelistratov would post a short news story on some website and didn't send him any proof... so some Priora wouldn't complain about having to strain their brains and read the text syllable by syllable instead of looking at pictures.
  But they secretly sent me a photo a second before the crash:))
2. Grancer81
  
  +3
  
  12 January 2026 19: 22
  
  So ask your Bandera friends from fascist Ukraine, let them send it to you.
3. Dart2027
  
  -1
  
  12 January 2026 20: 28
  
  Quote: prior
  Even the photo is for illustration purposes.
  
  Considering that these aircraft do not fly close to the front lines, but are located deep in the enemy’s defenses, this would be strange.
4. Roman070280
  
  +2
  
  12 January 2026 23: 39
  
  And another 50% of the gas is in storage.
5. Botrops
  
  0
  
  16 January 2026 07: 52
  
  So, in order for you to believe it, the S-300 crew has to take a photo from a distance of 300 km?
  As for the destruction of our Geranium and Kalibr missiles, such incidents certainly do occur. Moreover, some Geranium missiles are sometimes launched solely to overload Ukrainian air defenses. Nevertheless, many do reach their targets, judging by the number of hits on their infrastructure, as reported by the Ukrainians themselves.
  1. prior
    
    0
    
    16 January 2026 09: 05
    
    This article could be published every month. It contains no facts.
    If you like it, eat it.
6. The comment was deleted.
Caruso

+3

12 January 2026 23: 24

A certain S-300 crew commander told... Well, that's all we'll take his word for it. But the crests are dumping stories online about how they're burning these same S-300s, as well as S-400s and many other things, by the dozen. You'll believe it, whether you like it or not.
1. Roman070280
  
  0
  
  12 January 2026 23: 43
  
  And here are the Ukrainian citizens dumping it on the Internet
  
  We are not like that..
  We were told on RENT-TV that our planes and our air defense are the best... isn't that enough?
  1. Botrops
    
    -1
    
    16 January 2026 07: 58
    
    Well, if it weren't so, the number of arrivals in our cities and villages would be many times higher. And this is despite the fact that Americans They generously share intelligence data with Ukraine, allowing them to bypass air defense zones. So, overall, the air defense in the Northeast Military District (Russian, of course) is proving quite capable. But the Patriots, apparently, are incapable of defending even a single city. That's judging by the fact that Tymoshenko spoke in the Rada in her outerwear due to the lack of heating.
Sedoy

0

13 January 2026 19: 33

A single missile costs at least $2 million (as of 2024), and a single missile launch is the cost of the missile itself plus operational costs, which is estimated to be tens of millions of dollars for a salvo of multiple missiles.
Thus, the cost of one launch of an S-300 missile, especially modern/modernized ones, is very high, amounting to millions of dollars per missile, and salvos – tens of millions ©

F-16: Older models could cost $34 million (F-16D Block 52), while modern export versions such as the F-16V (Block 70/72) are valued at $63-70 million ©
1. Botrops
  
  0
  
  16 January 2026 08: 05
  
  Where do you get the data on the cost of anti-missile systems, sir? If you're citing American figures, they're unlikely to be relevant to Russian realities. Typically, the cost of such products in Russia is several times lower than comparable American ones. Are the operating costs of a missile launch several times higher than the cost of the missile itself? Could you please clarify what you mean by operating costs?
dubas

0

13 January 2026 21: 34

Quote: Roman070280
And another 50% of the gas is in storage.

Once upon a time
svoroponov

-1

1 February 2026 22: 17

Recently, there was a video showing Ukrainians destroying supposedly our own aircraft at airfields and parking lots. Experts analyzed it and found that 90 percent of it was fake. It was our footage, not Ukrainian, and it was their equipment that was being destroyed. Some of it was strikes on decommissioned or counterfeit equipment. And the fact that Ukraine has already decommissioned or destroyed up to 20 F-16s for various reasons was recently reported in the Western press.
And one more thing. There, in Ukraine, the number of our missiles shot down is counted not by the actual number destroyed, but by the number of missiles fired, the number of ammunition rounds fired, and the word on the downing. They do shoot down some things, of course, but nowhere near what they loudly claim. And this is obvious to everyone from the devastation our missiles cause there. And since they pay for downings in Ukraine and there are tariffs, even if there are no air raids at all, they'll still shoot something down and prove that something was incoming and they destroyed this phantom. Their mentality is one of deception, and the desire to profit from it. This opinion isn't entirely mine, but that of a Ukrainian who, after being wounded, received treatment in our country and then stayed to work. He was part of a Ukrainian BUK crew.