Ukraine claims to have shot down two Russian planes in a day that may represent something of a turning point in the war for a number of reasons. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, announced that the Ukrainian Air Force hit and knocked out two Russian aircraft considered to be of strategic importance: an A-50 reconnaissance aircraft and an Il-22M air command center.
The A-50 disappeared from radar after being hit in the southeastern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya. An Il-22M11, a modernized version of the Il-22M, was reportedly hit over the Sea of Azov and made an emergency landing in the southern Russian city of Anapa. The pilot requested an ambulance at the landing site, RBC-Ukraine reported, citing the allegedly intercepted radio messages.
The Kremlin did not provide any official information on the shooting down of the two planes. “No, we don't have this information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, quoted by Tass. “In any case, this is a matter that concerns the special military operation,” added the spokesperson, inviting the question to be addressed to the Ministry of Defense. No comments were received from the latter.
Images spread on Telegram profiles and on X confirm the Ukrainian version. Kiev, therefore, seems to have achieved a significant result. The A-50 in particular is a plane that Moscow uses to detect enemy air defense systems and to coordinate attacks by Russian jets against certain targets.
How Kiev hit Russian planes
It is not clear, as the Guardian also points out, how Ukraine managed to shoot down the two planes. The possibility of friendly fire cannot be ruled out, already determining in operations with disastrous effects for Russia. It is probable, however, that Kiev used Patriot missiles. This, however, would only be possible under one condition: the Patriots would have to have arrived in a position close to the objective and therefore to the line of contact along the south-eastern front. In the range of hypotheses, taken into consideration by Russian military bloggers, the intervention of foreign units cannot be missing, in particular British elements of the SAS special corps.
Regardless of the details of the operations, the shooting down of aircraft is an event that should not be underestimated. According to the British Ministry of Defence, Russia has only 6 A-50 aircraft at its disposal, each of which costs around 300 million euros. Hitting one of these aircraft means undermining the solidity of Moscow's war machine in the Sea of Azov, weakening the entire apparatus that revolves around Crimea.
If the A-50 represented the “priority objective” for the Ukrainian Air Force, in this general picture the substantial damage to the Il-22, hit in the tail rudder and unusable, also takes on significant weight. The latest 2 targets claimed by Ukraine add to a series of targets hit in recent weeks. Kiev announced that it had shot down a series of Russian fighters, at least 8 since December 5th. All this, without still being able to have the coveted F-16s. Ukraine has denied the rumors spread by Newsweek magazine, which hypothesized the presence of American-made jets in the war theater before the end of 2023: “The American edition of Newsweek published an article with incredible hypotheses about the presence of F -16 in Ukraine and even about their probable involvement in the destruction of six Russian planes.”
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