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Ukraine said it shot down a Russian spy plane and badly damaged a second over the Sea of Azov region, dealing a major blow to Moscow's air force.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, told the Financial Times on Monday that Ukrainian forces managed to destroy the Russian A-50 and damage the Il-22.
“The A-50 was shot down and exploded,” he said. “The Il-22 was badly damaged, but unfortunately for us, it managed to make an emergency landing in Anapa [a Russian town on the Black Sea coast]” Budanov added during an interview in his office in Kiev.
Earlier on Monday, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny wrote on Telegram that “soldiers of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the enemy's long-range radar aircraft A-50 and Il-22 airborne command posts of the enemy.”
He shared a clip from a radar screen that appeared to show the planes disappearing over the sea and thanked the Air Force for “the excellently planned and executed operation in the Azov region” late Sunday.
The attacks on the two command and control aircraft represent a significant boost to Ukraine's counteroffensive, nearly two years after Russia began its full-scale invasion. The sophisticated surveillance aircraft are crucial to Russia's coordination of ground operations.
“There are only eight A-50s in good condition,” Budanov said, adding that the destruction of the aircraft would likely affect Russia’s ability to operate and communicate “around the clock” in the conflict zone.
Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, also confirmed the attacks, writing on Telegram: “This is for Dnipro! Burn in hell, you bastards!”, referring to recent Russian airstrikes on the southeastern city.
Ukrainian defense sources said the A-50, an airborne early warning and control aircraft, was shot down shortly after taking off near Kyrylivka, a coastal town on the northern Azov coast in the occupied Zaporizhia region, at 9:10 p.m. local time. At about the same time, the Il-22 airborne command post was hit and damaged.
The Sea of Azov, which lies north of the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea, lies between Ukraine and Russia but has been entirely controlled by Russia since the start of the war.
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The Ukrainian military did not say what the planes were attacked with, and it has few domestically manufactured air defense systems suitable for the attack. But since Ukraine received the U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems last year, it has been waging a more effective fight against Russian aircraft.
There was no immediate reaction from the Russian Defense Ministry. The Kremlin has “no information” about it, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
In particular, the loss of the A-50 is “significant because Russia only has a limited number of them,” said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Designed and produced by the Soviet Union, the A-50, dubbed the “Mainstay” by NATO, is a four-engine, jet-powered aircraft capable of carrying a crew of 15. Using a tail-mounted rotating radar, it can detect enemy aircraft and intercept incoming missiles from more than 650 km away, while coordinating friendly aircraft and detecting ground targets up to 300 km away.
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The four-engine, propeller-driven Ilyushin Il-22 carries ten crew members and helps coordinate ground operations.
Rybar, a pro-Kremlin military analysis channel on Telegram, did not rule out the possibility of friendly fire from Russian air defense systems.
“If this information [about the downing of the planes] If confirmed, it would be another dark day for the Russian Aerospace Forces and air defense,” the channel said.
Another pro-Kremlin Telegram channel called Dva Mayora (Two Mayors) acknowledged the damage to the planes and also raised the possibility of a friendly fire incident.
“All systemic problems and causes of the incident are known to specialists, aviators and air defense soldiers,” the channel's authors wrote.
Fighterbomber, another pro-war Telegram channel, posted a picture of the Il-22's wing and tail, which were full of holes after the attack.
Additional reporting by Max Seddon