Ukraine shooting down Russian transport planes

 DailyWire:

Multiple Russian military aircraft were allegedly shot down on Friday night as Russia closed in on Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, according to claims from Ukraine’s government.

“According to a statement from the military’s General Staff, the Il-76 heavy transport plane was shot down near Vasylkiv, a city 40 kilometers south of Kyiv,” The Times of Israel reported. “The Russian military has not commented on the incident so far, and the report could not be immediately verified.”

Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter with The Kyiv Independent, claimed that a second Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport plane was shot down in the area.

“Yet another Russian Ilyushin Il-76 has been downed near Bila Tserkva, Ukraine’s State Agency for Special Communications says,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Battle of Vasylkiv Airfield rages high.”

The Associated Press later confirmed the reports that the two heavy transport planes had been shot down....
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It is not clear what the cargo was in the transport planes.  It could have been equipment and supplies for the troops on the ground.  However, most such operations are done after an area has been secured and anti-aircraft missiles are o longer a threat.

See, also:

Putin's Failure

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But things went badly wrong. The Russian battalion-sized airmobile force met stiff air defense and was immediately counterattacked by the Ukrainian mobile reserve. Unable to land follow-on forces, the paratroopers could not withstand heavy weapons and were scattered or wiped out. Equally serious for the Russians was the failure of their northern pincer to advance on schedule.

Desperate to “bag” the Ukrainian government, the Russians attempted a large scale airborne assault for Vasylkiv Airfield to the south of Kyiv to establish a blocking position to catch withdrawing units. But this failed, with 2 C-17 counterpart IL-76s loaded with paratroops destroyed, and with them, two infantry companies of the Kremlin’s finest. Crucially the Russian mechanized elements trickling into Kyiv proved too weak to break through the city defense.
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