Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov posted on Twitter a photo of a Su-24 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force with a British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile. This confirms that the Su-24s became carriers of British missiles, writes columnist for the American edition of The Drive Thomas Newdyk.

The photo shows a Su-24 with a missile on a pylon under the wing. It is noted that the ammunition in the picture is not carried by the Su-24M bomber, but by the Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft. The publication admits that the photo may have been edited to illustrate the use of Storm Shadow.

On the other hand, even if the image has been digitally manipulated to show the Storm Shadow, this seems to confirm that the Su-24 is the carrier aircraft for this missile.

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Newdick emphasizes that the process of integrating the Storm Shadow into an aircraft should not be difficult, since the missile is programmed with the target's coordinates before flight. According to him, Storm Shadow can be launched from the Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft, which is initially devoid of offensive weapons.

Earlier in May, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev, said that Russian anti-aircraft missile systems can destroy Storm Shadow at all stages of flight.