British intelligence reports that this shows that Russia has recognized Ukraine’s success in destroying the A-50 aircraft.
Citing intelligence, on January 17, 2024, the Russian Air Force began using another A-50 aircraft, but this time it flew further from eastern Ukraine.
This intelligence proves that the destruction of the plane was not an accident, as the Russian Federation tried to tell.
The air defense system, known as “FrankenSAM”, developed as part of a Ukrainian-US project, was used for the first time to shoot down Russian A-50 and Il-22 aircraft. Before that, the air defense of the occupiers in Crimea, annexed by Russia, was very purposefully depleted, luring the flying radar closer and closer to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, announced on January 15 that Ukrainian soldiers had shot down Russian A-50 and Il-22 aircraft.
The A-50 probably exploded and then crashed in the western part of the Sea of Azov, while the damaged Il-22M landed at the nearest airfield of the occupiers.
Yuriy Ignats, the representative of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, added that they had dreamed of destroying such a target since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army.
At the same time, there was a version on social networks that the Russian planes were accidentally shot down by the invaders themselves.
The first photo of the Il-22 plane shot down over the Sea of Azov has been published on the pages of Russian military bloggers in social networks.
The picture shows that several holes have been punched in the tail part of the aircraft body – a very hard keel, stabilizer, large holes are visible in the rudders of direction and height, smaller ones – in the rear part of the fuselage.
Despite the fact that the Il-22 was shot down, it was successfully landed, according to sources close to the Russian army.
2024-01-19 14:39:39
#Intelligence #Russia #indirectly #acknowledged #destruction #A50 #aircraft
