A Russian jet shot down a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter plane that was on military operations over the east of Ukraine, where government forces are fighting to quell a pro-Russian separatist rebellion, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Thursday, according to Reuters. The plane was brought down on Wednesday night by a rocket strike and the pilot safely ejected, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's national Defence and Security Council, told journalists. It was the third reported incident this week in which a Ukrainian plane has been hit by a missile. Kiev has said that an An-26 military transporter was brought down last Monday probably by a missile fired from Russia, either from the air or from the ground. Two out of the eight people on board that plane were killed, the Ukrainian military said. On Wednesday, another SU-25 was hit by a rebel missile but the pilot brought the plane down successfully with relatively slight damage. Kiev did not allege Russian involvement in that case.
