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British intelligence reports that this shows that Russia recognized Ukraine’s success in destroying the A-50 aircraft.
Citing intelligence information, the Russian Air Force began deploying another A-50 aircraft on January 17, 2024, but this time it flew further away from eastern Ukraine.
This information proves that the destruction of the aircraft was not an accident, as the Russian Federation tried to claim.
The “FrankenSAM” air defense system, developed as part of a Ukrainian-American project, was used for the first time to shoot down Russian A-50 and Il-22 aircraft. Previously, the air defense of the occupiers in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, was deliberately weakened and the air radar was lured ever closer to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, announced on January 15 that Ukrainian soldiers 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 occupier airfield.
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 Russian army’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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 aircraft shot down over the Sea of Azov was published on the pages of Russian military bloggers on social networks.
The picture shows that several holes were punched in the tail part of the aircraft body – a very hard keel, stabilizer, large holes are visible in the directional and elevator control surfaces, smaller ones – in the rear part of the fuselage.
Although the Il-22 was shot down, it was successfully landed, according to sources close to the Russian army.
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