Russia’s Su-35 was supposed to dominate the skies. Instead, Ukraine turned the hunter into the hunted. In this video, we break down the dramatic July 8 shootdown, the alleged F-16 ambush, the role of Patriot radar support, and the claims that Russian pilots may have been relying on misleading battlefield maps. Discover how Ukrainian coordination, deception, and daring may have brought down one of Russia’s most advanced fighters in a clash that stunned military observers worldwide.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukrainian F-16 Shoots Down Russian Su-35
00:42 - Wreckage Confirms Eighth Russian Su-35 Shot Down
02:59 - Russia Loses 437 Planes in Ukraine War
04:15 - F-16 vs Su-35 Fighter Jet Comparison
06:34 - How Ukraine Trapped Russian Su-35 With Patriot
13:06 - Did Fake Russian Maps Cause the Su-35 Crash?
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SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/B0yT3W0U
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ukrainian F-16 Shoots Down Russian Su-35
00:42 - Wreckage Confirms Eighth Russian Su-35 Shot Down
02:59 - Russia Loses 437 Planes in Ukraine War
04:15 - F-16 vs Su-35 Fighter Jet Comparison
06:34 - How Ukraine Trapped Russian Su-35 With Patriot
13:06 - Did Fake Russian Maps Cause the Su-35 Crash?
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/B0yT3W0U
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NewsTranscript
00:00Russia's Su-35 pilot thought that he faced no danger. Far enough from the front to not have
00:07to deal with Ukraine's air defenses, or so he thought. That pilot felt like he could fly with
00:11impunity. Ukraine wasn't going to do anything. Even the best Ukrainian airframes can't survive
00:17a dogfight with an Su-35. All was going fine. Until it wasn't. Ukrainian F-16s have just
00:24humiliated the deadliest fighter jet that Russia regularly deploys in a genius move that will go
00:30down in the history books. Ukraine's F-16 pilots just found a whole new way to dominate. And one
00:36unfortunate Su-35 pilot was the first to find out how. Not that you would know that from the initial
00:42reporting of what happened. Ukraine itself was the first to reveal that an Su-35 was down.
00:48In a July 8 telegram post, the Ukrainian air force announced that an Su-35 had been shot down in
00:54the
00:54eastern direction and that the victory was confirmed. Photographs from the site soon verified
01:00Ukraine's claim, showcasing the wreckage of the Russian fighter jet on the ground. Of course,
01:05Russia has lost Su-35s before. By June 2025, the visually confirmed count of destroyed Su-35s
01:12stood at 8, but there was something different this time around. Most of the Su-35s that Russia has lost
01:18so far have been the victims of drone strikes. However, the July 8 incident reportedly saw Russia's
01:24premier fighter jet get taken down by an airframe that shouldn't be able to face it one-on-one in
01:29a dogfight, a Ukrainian F-16. It wasn't long after the Ukrainian air force's announcement that the
01:35Sukhumimus YouTube channel published a breakdown of what had happened. And in a July 8 video,
01:41Sukhumimus reported that Russia's Su-35 had been shot down in an air-to-air duel. This wasn't a drone
01:47sneaking up and taking the fighter jet out. It wasn't Ukrainian air defenses unleashing a missile that
01:53the Su-35 pilot couldn't escape. There was a dogfight involved, and it pitted at least one
01:58Ukrainian F-16 against a Russian Su-35. There is a twist to the tale, and we just gave you
02:04a little
02:04clue there. Stick with us and we'll reveal all. Further confirmation of Russia's Su-35 loss has
02:09come from Russia. Not from the Defense Ministry or the Kremlin, of course. Neither is going to want
02:14anything to do with publicizing the fact that Russia has just lost an Su-35 in the type of aerial
02:19jewel that it's supposed to be capable of winning. Rather, the confirmation comes from a military
02:24commentator named Alexei Zemtsov, who is a Russian military blogger. Zemtsov confirmed that the wreckage
02:30we saw in the footage we shared earlier was indeed an Su-35, and he added the extra detail that
02:36the
02:36pilot supposedly survived Ukraine's attack and somehow managed to drag himself back to Russian
02:41occupied territory. How true that claim is remains to be seen, but the only thing we knew for sure at
02:47the
02:47time of the initial reporting was that an Su-35 was down. How it happened, outside of the confirmation
02:53that an F-16 was involved, was still very much in the air. This wasn't supposed to happen to Russia.
02:58But then the complete failure of Russia's air force to impose its will on Ukraine has been evident from
03:03the very beginning of the war. As of July 10th, Russia has lost 437 planes and 353 helicopters to
03:11Ukraine, many of which were taken out during the first weeks of the invasion, when Russia was arrogant
03:16enough to believe that Ukraine didn't have the air defenses needed to stop them. That was soon
03:21proven wrong, and Russia has spent most of the war engaged in a strategy where it keeps its aircraft
03:26behind the front, from where they can launch missiles and glide bombs against Ukraine at a safe
03:30distance. That strategy hasn't stopped Ukraine from scoring wins. On June 26th, Russia lost one of
03:36its MiG-29 fighter jets to a Ukrainian strike at Crimea's Belbek airfield. Russia is also starting to
03:42run low on its Su-35 stockpiles. We mentioned earlier that at least eight were confirmed to
03:48have been destroyed prior to Ukraine's latest takedown. The last known delivery of this aircraft
03:53to Russia's military took place in November 2025, and appears to have been a batch of between 15 and
03:5918. The year before, Russia received another 15 Su-35s. It's difficult to see whether more are coming,
04:06but Ukraine has been whittling down the stockpiles. Now, another Su-35 is down.
04:11And just like Russia's overall failure to leverage its superior airpower in Ukraine,
04:16the loss of this Su-35 in the air to an F-16 wasn't supposed to happen.
04:21Let's assume that this was the one-on-one air-to-air duel that was initially reported for
04:26a moment. In that sort of situation, and assuming an equal level of competence between the Ukrainian
04:31and Russian pilots, the Su-35 should come out on top. Popular Mechanics has the numbers.
04:37Though both the F-16 and Su-35 are fourth-generation fighter jets, the latter is more modern, having
04:43debuted in 2016. The F-16 is an airframe that dates back to the 1970s. Both have a comparable
04:50top speed of about Mach 2 at altitude, but the big difference, and what should be the winner for
04:54an Su-35 pilot is combat range. An F-16 has a combat range of about 925 kilometers. An Su
05:02-35 has a
05:02combat range of almost 1,600 kilometers. That should give the Su-35 pilot more range to maneuver
05:09into position, assuming their aircraft's onboard radars and sensors detect the F-16 in enough time.
05:15But there's more to it than that. Strassam adds that the Su-35 has more flexibility than the F-16
05:21when it comes to nozzle movement. Both of the Su-35's nozzles can move 360 degrees, with each
05:27moving on different axes. What this means is that the Su-35 can pull off the Cobra maneuver,
05:33which sees it essentially hover in place in mid-air. The F-16 can't do that. In a dogfight where
05:39the
05:39Western airframe is trying to chase down the Su-35, this clever move allows the Russian fighter to come
05:44to a stop, potentially leading the F-16 flying right past it to give the Su-35 pilot the advantage.
05:50None of this necessarily means that an F-16 can't defeat an Su-35. However, the F-16 would have
05:56to
05:57rely on support from AWACS to get a bead on where the Su-35 is ahead of time, as well
06:01as air-to-air
06:02missiles such as the AMRAP, which can be fired from beyond visual range, allowing the F-16 to ambush
06:08the Su-35 rather than get dragged into a straight dogfight. In short, the Su-35 is supposed to have
06:14an advantage over the F-16. But Russia's fighter jet lost in what has been described as an air-to
06:19-air
06:19duel. How? The answer is that it wasn't a straight dogfight. It was a masterclass in Ukrainian strategy
06:26that forced Russia's fighter jet pilot to fly his Su-35 right into a trap of Ukraine's making.
06:32But before we reveal how Ukraine managed to pull this off, this is a reminder that you're watching
06:37the military show. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, now's the perfect time to hit
06:41the button before we get back to the video. It's a Ukrainian journalist named Ivan Yakovina,
06:46who believes that he has figured out how Ukraine managed to score a victory that it wasn't ever
06:51supposed to be able to score with its F-16s. Drawing on reports from Russian sources, Yakovina
06:56says that Ukraine managed to lure Russia's Su-35 pilot into an ambush, where the fighter jet was
07:01attacked with missiles launched from both the air and from the ground. The plan was risky,
07:06the journalist claims. The Ukrainian F-16 pilot would have had to get within visual range of the
07:11Su-35, using the F-16 as bait to lure the Russian pilot into thinking they could engage in a
07:17straight
07:17dogfight. Then the F-16 blew as fast as it could, evading the Su-35's attempts to attack until the
07:24Russian pilot ended up at the ambush site. By that point, it would be too late.
07:29What would have looked like an easy victory for the Russian pilot to score was quickly turned
07:33into a defeat. Visions of medals being awarded and Putin calling the pilot a hero of Russia
07:38would have been quickly replaced by panic as the Su-35 hurtled toward the ground.
07:43This was a brilliant plan by Ukraine that reportedly involved several F-16s and even a
07:48Patriot air defense system. And shockingly, it wasn't just Ukraine's trap that led to the downfall
07:53of the Su-35 pilot. That pilot was betrayed by his own country, setting up the entire situation in
07:59the first place. That betrayal happened unintentionally, but it was the result of
08:04Russian lies that we've been seeing throughout the war coming back to bite the pilot of one of
08:08the country's most effective airframes. But before we explain what all of that means,
08:12there are more details about Ukraine's brilliant trap to cover. In its report on Ukraine's genius
08:16gambit, Euromiden Press reveals that the various Russian sources that have uncovered Ukraine's
08:21trap believe that Ukraine used a trio of F-16s to lure the Su-35 into the ambush.
08:27If that turns out to be true, then Ukraine took a big risk. Ukraine has been pledged about 80 F
08:32-16s,
08:33though half of those have yet to arrive due to various delays among its pilots.
08:37Losing up to three in an attempt to trap an Su-35 would have been a major blow to Ukraine's
08:42air
08:42force, not to mention the likely loss of three talented pilots that would have gone along with it.
08:47Still, the F-16s flew, tempting the Su-35 into chases as the Ukrainian aircraft drew closer to the
08:53ambush spot, and what was awaiting at the location? A Patriot air defense system. From having the
08:59advantage, the Su-35 pilot ended up with a Herculean and impossible task on his hands. At this point,
09:05the story gets murky. Some claim that the Ukrainian jets and the Patriot all fired on the Su-35.
09:10Others, including Euromiden Press, say that it isn't clear which of Ukraine's systems fired,
09:16only that whichever it was, it forced the Su-35 pilot to eject and run for the hills.
09:21Regardless, this trap shows an unbelievable level of coordination between air defense
09:25teams on the ground and pilots in the sky. In our opinion, it seems most likely that it was
09:30the F-16s that fired on Russia's Su-35, rather than the Patriot system. Why? Well, two reasons.
09:36First, Ukraine has a very well-known Patriot missile shortage, and it needs to keep every
09:41single missile that it has in its arsenal for use against Russia's ballistic missiles.
09:45In fact, the Atlantic Council reports that Russia has escalated its ballistic missile strikes
09:50precisely because it knows that Ukraine is suffering from a Patriot shortage.
09:54As big a scalp as an Su-35 is for Ukraine to claim, it's not more important than ensuring that
10:00Russia's missile strikes do as little damage as possible. And when you have F-16s in the sky armed
10:05with missiles that can take the Su-35 down, there is even less reason to expend a Patriot interceptor
10:10to take down the Su-35. Yakovina appears to agree with this assessment. He says,
10:15Judging by the fact that the Russian pilot survived, at least that's what the Russians say,
10:20it's likely that the plane was hit. I can't guarantee it 100%, but it was most likely not
10:24a Patriot missile that hit it. I'll explain why. This missile is very large, creating a gigantic
10:30explosion with a cloud of metal balls that turns both a plane and its pilot into a sieve.
10:35Surviving such an explosion is simply impossible. Second, the Patriot system appears to have a very
10:40clear role that it could have played in the ambush that Ukraine set up. As Euromiden Press points out,
10:46Ukraine's F-16s lacked the missiles and radars needed to make them a match for the missiles and
10:50radars installed in Su-35. But when you throw a Patriot air defense system and its radars into the
10:55mix, you get a very different story. What we believe has happened is that the Ukrainian F-16s
11:01have flown within range of the Su-35's radars, but far enough away to minimize risk. On the ground,
11:07a Patriot air defense system's radar has tracked the Su-35, and that data has been transmitted to
11:13the F-16 pilots in real time, so they know where to fly to keep the Su-35 moving toward
11:18the trap
11:18without the Russian pilot being able to shoot any of the F-16s down. Then, once the Patriot detected
11:24that the Su-35 was in the perfect position, the order was given. Fire. Euromiden Press presents
11:30another possibility. It points out that Ukraine has been using its F-16s to accompany other airframes
11:36that launch glide bombs at Russian positions in the near rear. To do that, the F-16s have to
11:40maintain a low flight profile as they approach the Russian position. What may have happened is
11:45that one of Ukraine's F-16s flew this flight profile, though it wasn't accompanying a glide bomb
11:50launcher. Instead, the F-16 was the bait used to tempt the Russian Su-35 out to prevent what seemed
11:56like it was going to be a glide bomb attack. As the Su-35 attempted to go on the attack,
12:01the other
12:01two F-16s, flying much higher than both the initial F-16 and the Su-35, launched AIM-120 radar
12:07-guided
12:08missiles to take out the Russian fighter jet from above. In this scenario, the Patriot would have still
12:13been providing real-time data, likely to let the two F-16 pilots waiting in ambush know when the time
12:18had come to strike. There are many possibilities here. As you would expect, Ukraine is keeping
12:23everything hush-hush. Why would it give away the specifics of the strategy that it used when there's
12:28a possibility that it could be used again in the future? After all, Ukraine has made its glide bombs
12:33a constant threat to the Russian rear. Now it seems to have a strategy that takes advantage of this fact,
12:38which it can use to tempt Russian pilots out for a fight that those pilots stand no chance of winning.
12:43But there is one more twist to this tale. Earlier we mentioned a certain betrayal had taken place.
12:49As unintentional as that betrayal may have been, it may have ended up being the reason why Russia's Su-35
12:55ended up in the lethal position that it found itself in. And the ultimate irony here is that Russia's own
13:00desire to make itself seem as strong as possible is what has led to one of its best fighter jets
13:05being
13:05shot out of the sky. The Su-35 pilot was operating using inaccurate maps. And those maps were inaccurate
13:12because Russia had created them to exaggerate its battlefield gains against Ukraine. At least that's
13:17according to a July 9 United 24 media report, which says that the Su-35 crash site was around 42
13:24kilometers away from the front lines of the war. That's a lot closer than most Russian Su-35s get to
13:29the front due to the risk of being shot down by air defense systems. What seems to have happened here
13:34is
13:34that Russia's exaggerated claims of its gains, as reflected on the maps provided to the Su-35 pilot,
13:40have led that pilot into believing they were flying in a relatively safe zone,
13:44rather than straight into the mouth of the trap that Ukraine had created for him.
13:48As the Ukraine control map X account put it, they probably thought they were further from the
13:52front using Russian maps, once again hoisted by their own MOD's petard. What a way to find out that
13:58your country has been lying about its success in Ukraine. After ejecting and watching your multi-million
14:04dollar airframe crash, you get the news that all of this could have been avoided if it wasn't for
14:08Putin's massive ego or desire for delusion needing to be soothed. Of course, anybody who has been
14:14paying attention to Russia's claims know that the exaggeration of battlefield gains is far from new.
14:19Putin wants to hold as much leverage over Ukraine as possible in peace discussions,
14:23so lying about where the front line is located serves his purposes.
14:27In November 2025, Medusa reported that a former Russian military cartographer had blasted the
14:33maps that Russia is creating as total nonsense, as he accused commanders of cooking the maps to
14:38exaggerate gains. The Institute for the Study of War has made the same claim as recently as May 2026,
14:45noting that it has found no evidence of a slew of gains Russia claimed to have made in May,
14:49suggesting that Russia is pretending that sneaking an infiltrator or two into a Ukrainian position
14:54is equivalent to taking that position over altogether. And even the commander-in-chief of
14:59Ukraine's armed forces, Oleksandr Siersky, says that Russian commanders create fake maps so they can
15:05please the top command, including Putin. Siersky added that this is good for Ukraine. It means Russia's
15:11military is operating using false information. On July 8, a Russian Su-35 pilot may have just found out
15:17how damaging Putin's need to be told that Russia is advancing can truly be. Whether the map story is
15:22true or not, Ukraine has just sent a very timely reminder to Russia. Even the best Russian fighter
15:28jets aren't safe if they get within 50 kilometers of the front. So much danger awaits. In this case,
15:34it was a brilliantly coordinated ambush that seems to have taken advantage of Russia's high command's
15:39lies. Next time it may be a drone or an air defense missile that shoots a Russian jet out of
15:44the sky.
15:44This is why Russia can't make its much larger air force count in its invasion. Ukraine is just too
15:50damn good at dealing with everything that Russia tries to throw at it. And Ukraine also has the
15:54capacity to go from brilliant to brutal in a heartbeat. And in many cases, it mixes the two.
16:00That's precisely what we've discovered Ukraine has done when it revealed Operation Ashan. A multi-month
16:06operation started in 2025 and carried out right under Russian noses without anybody being the wiser.
16:12Ashan shattered Russia's artillery and set the stage for much of the success that Ukraine experienced
16:17in 2026. We have all of the details you need to know, so check out our video to learn more.
16:22And if you enjoyed this video, hit subscribe and ring the notification bell. There's a lot more
16:26where this comes from right here on The Military Show. And thank you, as always, for watching.
16:31I'll see you next time.
16:32I'll see you next time.