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The Ukrainian military said it shot down two major Russian spy and special forces aircraft over the Sea of ​​Azov in the south of the country last night. Ukrainian media talk about “the worst day for the Russian Air Force since the beginning of the invasion.”

This will include an A-50 spy plane at a cost of more than 300 million euros, and an Ilyushin Il-22 command plane. The A-50 is said to have crashed into the sea shortly after take-off, while the Il-22 is said to have arrived at a Russian airport.

According to the RBC Ukraine news agency The A-50 suddenly disappeared from radar last night around 9pm local time and the pilots were no longer responding to their radio signals. The Il-22 is said to have broadcast SOS signals around the same time. As well as other media such as the public broadcaster Soespilne So that he knows Based on defensive sources about the successful attack. Sources within the Ukrainian intelligence service told the newspaper Kyiv Post He added that the two planes were hit, but did not comment further on how this happened.

There is no independent confirmation of this claim at the moment, but Russian war bloggers also report an incident involving two such aircraft. One of the planes was allegedly shot down by Russian friendly fire.

Ukrainian bloggers talk about the possible use of the Ukrainian Patriot anti-aircraft system from the West. This means that several Russian fighter planes have already been shot down in recent weeks. However, an attack on the Sea of ​​Azov would be a major development in the war, as the inland sea is completely surrounded by occupied territories and Russia. This means that the anti-aircraft missiles would have flown more than 100 kilometers over the occupied territories without being intercepted.

AWACS

The A-50 produced by Beriev is an aircraft called AWACS, which stands for “”Airborne warning and control systemIt is a reconnaissance, spy, command and communications aircraft that uses a radar system. A feature of this type of aircraft is the presence of a “dish” at the top in which the radar is located.

The aircraft, with a crew of fifteen people, is mainly used to coordinate attacks launched by friendly fighter aircraft while at the same time detecting enemy aircraft and missiles at long distances. It can detect air targets up to 650 km away, and ground targets up to 300 km away.

Russia is said to have built about forty examples of the aircraft since 1978, of which only about ten are now active. Since 2003, Russia has also been modernizing the A-50U, eight of which have been manufactured so far.

Tommy Theis