Kiev claims it has dealt a heavy blow to the Russian Air Force

VKS has not suffered such a loss since the beginning of the war which started almost two years ago. On Monday January 15, the Ukrainian General Staff announced the downing of two of the most valuable aircraft. Voenno Kosmicheskie SillyRussian Aerospace Forces: Beriv A-50 for radar detection and Ilyushin Il-22 for command.

“Thanks to the Air Force for a perfectly planned and conducted operation in the Azov region! »Congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief of the kyiv Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluz, in a message published on the Telegram network.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, both aircraft were operating on Sunday north of the Sea of ​​Azov, which is now fully under Russian control, from where they were monitoring enemy airspace. They may be engaged by one or more Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense systems, possibly Western-supplied Patriot PAC-2s, whose missile range reaches 160 kilometers. General Zalozny accompanied his message with a video showing radar plots developed after they disappeared over the Sea of ​​Azov, which separates the Crimean peninsula from mainland Russia.

The Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile hypothesis nevertheless raises eyebrows among analysts, who cannot rule out the scenario of Russian fraternal fire, as has happened several times since the beginning of the conflict. “To reach the Sea of ​​Azov, the Ukrainians would have had to place Patriot batteries near the front line, which is very dangerous and unlikely considering the importance of these systems for them”Estimates Jean-Christophe Noel, associate researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) and editor-in-chief of the journal. Whirlpool.

If the damage is confirmed – Moscow has denied doing so for the moment – it would in any case be a serious blow to the Russian Air Force. Similar to the Westerners’ Boeing E-3 Awacs, Beriev A-50s are used by the VKS to engage enemy aircraft, helicopters, missiles or drones up to 600 kilometers away. “It’s a kind of big sensor, which maps the strategic situation in depth. An essential role in developing the aircraft safely.”Jean-Christophe Noel explains.

For Ukraine, a strong symbolic significance

However, the Russian military has very few of these devices. According to the statistics of “Military Balance”, According to an annual report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Moscow has only ten A-50s in its arsenal. And yet, not all will be functional. Russia has two permanently stationed around Ukraine, on the Sea of ​​Azov and Belarus, which is meant to be at least twice as many to ensure a continuous presence in the air. Just one is missing and an entire fleet of Russian aircraft can find itself blindsided. Westerners regularly fly their Awacs over Ukraine’s borders to provide information to Kiev.

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