The Russian news outlet Kommersant said two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters were shot down Saturday close to the Ukrainian border.
Kommersant said on its website that the Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters that made up a raiding party had been "shot down almost simultaneously" in an ambush in the Bryansk region, adjoining northeast Ukraine.
"According to preliminary data ... the fighters were supposed to deliver a missile and bomb attack on targets in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, and the helicopters were there to back them up — among other things to pick up the 'Su' crews if they were shot down."
The Russian state news agency TASS said a Russian Su-34 warplane had crashed in that region but did not specify a cause. It also cited an emergency services official as saying an engine fire in a helicopter had caused it to crash near Klintsy, which is about 40 kilometers from the border.
It made no mention of the Su-35, or of a second helicopter.
There was no official response from Ukraine, which usually declines to comment on reports of attacks inside Russia.
Kommersant provided no evidence for its report that four aircraft had been downed, but the same assertion was also made by several heavily followed pro-war military bloggers.
Earlier this month, explosions derailed freight trains on two consecutive days in the Bryansk region.
Earlier Saturday, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Malyar said Ukrainian troops were advancing in two directions in the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian and Russian officials both say pro-Kyiv forces have started to push back in and around Bakhmut after blunting a monthslong offensive by troops loyal to Moscow that left much of the city in ruins.
Russia acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Bakhmut ahead of a long-promised counteroffensive by Ukraine to retake more territory it lost after the start of the war last year.
"Our troops are gradually advancing in two directions in the suburbs of Bakhmut ... however, the situation in the city itself is more complicated," Malyar wrote on Telegram.
Much of the fighting in Bakhmut is being led by the Wagner group of mercenaries. In a Telegram post, founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said his men had advanced up to 550 meters in some directions on Saturday and said Ukrainian forces controlled less than 1.78 square kilometers of the city center.
