Ukraine says it has downed a Russian A-50 military spy plane - the second such claim in just over a month.
The plane was hit between the Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, Ukrainian military sources said, over 200km (124 miles) from the front line.
Emergency services reportedly found plane fragments in Kanevskoy district and put out a raging fire.
The ISW reports that Russian military bloggers are claiming that the Russians accidentally shot it down, because it's somehow better for Russian morale if they say that the Russians are so incompetent as to repeatedly shoot down their most valuable and scarcest aviation assets.
Still, that serves as sort of left-handed confirmation that the Ukrainians did, in fact, blow another Russian A-50 out of the sky.
Own Goal! Own Goal!! So much winning. Any 'victory' for Russia will be Pyrrhic. And Putin will have to ride the tiger of war to the bitter end to stay in power....which will be bitter for all. May there not be WWIII from his fever dream.
ReplyDeleteNo way to verify, but I read that the first "friendly fire" was accomplished by by surveilling the a-50 with the radar of a russian SAM which lacked the range for a hit while a Patriot battery was brought up with the radar on standby.When the A-50 came into Patriot range, they went active long enough to acquire the target, fired, and left. Tracks with how crafty the Ukrainians have been in some of their other endeavors.
ReplyDeleteThe S-300 battery crew have been arrested
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjhmHtpPLLo&t=123s