Oleg Davygora23:22, 23.02.24

Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down a Russian A-50 airborne early warning aircraft from a Soviet S-200 air defense system.

Ukraine shot down a Russian A-50U AWACS aircraft using a modernized missile for the Soviet S-200 air defense system. Ukrayinska Pravda reports this with reference to its sources in the Main Intelligence Directorate.

“The Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft was shot down by the S-200 long-range anti-aircraft missile system,” the statement said.

Back in the middle of last year, it was reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to modernize missiles for this old Soviet complex. 

In July 2023, the Russians began making statements about attacks on targets in Russia and the occupied territories with missiles from the S-200 complex. Among the targets hit were the Crimean Bridge, an air base in the Rostov region, Taganrog, the Kaluga region (bordering the Moscow region) and others. According to the Russians, the Ukrainians have redesigned the air defense system for attacks on ground targets and are firing with 5B28 missiles.

“Theoretically, the use of adapted S-200 air defense missiles to strike ground targets is possible at a distance of up to 600 km,” the Russian state publication TASS quoted “a high-ranking source in the field of aerospace defense.”

At the same time, it was not only the Russians who spoke about 600 kilometers. Former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, responsible for the air defense system, Igor Romanenko, in the summer of 2023, in a commentary to the Ukrainian Air Force, told how the Ukrainian military had already practiced training on the use of the S-200 missile against ground targets.

“Such missiles were launched at our test sites, and they flew over a distance of more than 600 km. I myself witnessed this,” Reserve General Romanenko noted then.

Shooting down of A-50U AWACS aircraft – details

A Russian A-50 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down on Friday evening over the Sea of ​​Azov. It was destroyed as a result of a joint operation of the Air Force and the Main Intelligence Directorate. According to preliminary data, the A-50 crashed near the village of Trudovaya Armenia in the Krasnodar Territory.

The intelligence officers added that a sharp drop in the speed and altitude of the downed A-50U aircraft was recorded near the city of Yeysk.

(C)UNIAN 2024