Soldiers of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the enemy long-range radar detection aircraft A-50 and the Il-22 air control post of the enemy.
The information about this was confirmed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyi.
"I thank the Air Force for the excellently planned and conducted operation in the Azov region," he wrote.
Information about this was also confirmed by the Ukrainian Air Force.
The day before, there was information that the Ukrainian military shot down two Russian planes over the Sea of Azov — A-50 and IL-22. According to unconfirmed information, the A-50 was hit in the Kyrylivka region of the Zaporizhzhia region, after which the aircraft disappeared from radars and stopped responding to requests. The IL-22M11 air command post was allegedly hit in the area of Strilkove of the Kherson region — after the damage, the aircraft crew requested evacuation.
What is known about the destroyed planes
The A-50 is a Russian long-range radar detection and control aircraft, thanks to which Russia directs the attacks of its strike aircraft and detects Ukrainian aircraft in the sky. Currently, this is the second loss of an A-50. Before that, a similar plane was disabled by Belarusian partisans at the Machulyshchi airbase in February 2023. A-50 is a very complex and specific technique. The enemy is not able to compensate for its losses, and in the arsenal of the Russian Federation there are only up to 20 of them.
The Il-22M11 is a protected air control post that operated together with the A-50 during enemy air attacks against Ukraine. This is the second loss of Il-22M by Russia during the war. The first such plane was shot down by the fighters of "Wagnerʼs PMC" during the Prigozhin rebellion in the summer of last year.