Putin’s Spy Plane ‘Is Destroyed In Drone Attack By Pro-Ukraine Belarus Group’
A £274million Russian spy plane has reportedly been destroyed in a drone attack near Minsk by a pro-Ukraine Belarus group.
Belarusian partisans and members of the country’s exiled opposition said they damaged Vladimir Putin’s A-50U surveillance military aircraft in a secret mission.
Two participants had used drones and had already left the country, claimed Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Front and central parts of the AWACS Beriev A-50U aircraft as well as the radar antenna were damaged from two explosions at the Machulishchy air base near Minsk, Belarusian anti-government organisation BYPOL claimed.
‘Partisans… confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk,’ tweeted Viacorka. ‘This is the most successful diversion since the beginning of 2022.’
The Beriev A-50, which has the Nato reporting name of Mainstay, has airborne command and control capabilities and can track up to 60 targets at a time.
The distinctive plane carries a fibreglass dome more than 33ft in diameter, housing rotating antenna of the Shmel radar complex. Its long-range radar detection system has been used to pinpoint bombing targets inside Ukraine.
‘I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the Russian hybrid occupation of Belarus & fight for the freedom of Ukraine,’ Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter.
Reports of the drone attack could not be independently verified.
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