Friday, May 2, the Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down two russian Su-30 fighter jets in one mission. First, footage showing one of the fighters falling into the sea after a missile hit was published by the Defense Intelligence, later Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi reported that another russian aircraft was destroyed, too, although without specifying what type it was.
Then, the Defense Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov confirmed in a comment to The War Zone that his service's operators took down exactly two russian Su-30 fighters. Budanov emphasized that this was a "historic moment," and Defense Express also pointed out this episode as unprecedented in history where a combat aircraft is downed by a missile launched from a surface drone, marking a significant milestone in multi-domain warfare.
Read more: Ukrainian Surface Drone Shoots Down russian Su-30 Aircraft with a Missile For the First Time in History (Video)
Moreover, despite our previous assumptions that the russian Su-30s were destroyed by modified R-73 air-to-air missiles (labeled Sea Dragon) — after all, Magura drones had been seen carrying those before — Budanov instead clarified that in this case, they were armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. This is, once again, the first time in the history of this weapon that it scores a kill on an aircraft after a drone launch.
The Ukrainian intelligence boss also revealed other details of the attack on russian aircraft, like the fact that three Magura-7 (or V7) surface drones were involved in the operation. He explained that V7 refers to a Magura V5 variant tailored for air defense.
The first-ever photo of Magura V7 was disclosed soon after in a Naval News post. According to naval warfare expert H I Sutton, the Magura V7 is different from the V5 version used to carry Sea Dragon missiles: it's an enlarged version with a wider hull and large fixed launch rails, it is approximately 8 meters long compared to its 5.5-meter V5 counterpart.
Moreover, Kyrylo Budanov noted that it was the AIM-9 missile that proved the best combination with the Magura V7, although several other missile types were tested. He specified that three Magura-7 drone boats were used in the May 2 ambush on russian fighters, two of them opened fire at the Su-30s.
The russian media outlets, meanwhile, painted a different picture, reporting dozens of surface drones involved in the attack. Quite possibly, the scale was intentionally exaggerated to present the episode as an extremely overwhelming attack that had to be "heroically repelled" and justify the loss of two aircraft at once.
The reports said one Su-30 crew managed to survive, the pilots were rescued by a civilian dry cargo ship, which the Ukrainian drones did not attack. The other fighter's crew didn't survive.
Read more: Ukraine Delivers Largest Drone Strike on Crimea in 2025, Targeting russian Military Infrastructure – Expert Opinion
