Footage shows Ukrainian fighter jets shooting down Russian missiles

Several videos, posted on Ukrainian social media channels, show fighter jets intercepting and shooting down Russian cruise missiles above Southern Ukraine.  

The videos showcase Ukrainian attempts to resist the latest Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure.  

They also provide some of the first cases of footage where both a launch and an explosion of a missile is visible: a rare instance in modern aerial warfare, which usually involves large distances and high speeds.  

In one of the videos, an aircraft – which can be recognized as a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet – launches an air-to-air missile, which conducts a series of sharp maneuvers and explodes after, presumably, hitting its target.  

“Wow, [it got] shot down!” a woman can be heard as saying in the background.  

The video bears a watermark from the Odesa Info Telegram channel and was posted on October 22, 2022. The description, attached to numerous reposts, states that the interception happened over Odesa, and that a Russian cruise missile was shot down.   

However, the quality of the video is not good enough to recognize what kind of target was intercepted.   

Another similar video was posted on October 22 by the Ukraine Now Telegram channel and shows a fighter jet – either a MiG-29 or a Su-27 – launching a missile which veers left and explodes.  

According to the description below the video, it was filmed in Chernivtsi Oblast, southwestern Ukraine.   

A post on the Telegram channel of the head of Chernivtsi Oblast administration Ruslan Zaparaniuk confirmed that an Ukrainian aircraft shot down a missile over Dnistrovskyi district. According to the post, the remains of the missile fell into a lake.  

In the morning of October 23, the Ukraine Now Telegram channel posted another video showing a Ukrainian Su-27 closely following a cruise missile. Both the jet and the missile can be glimpsed for a short while.  

The description claims that the video was filmed in Podilsk, a city north of Odesa.  

According to a statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on October 22 Russia conducted a cruise missile strike, which involved 17 Kh-55 (X-101) missiles launched by Tupolev Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, as well as 16 3M-54 Kalibr missiles launched by ships stationed in the Black Sea.  

Of 23 missiles, 18 were shot down, according to the statement. It is likely that some of these shootdowns were captured in the abovementioned videos.