For the Ukrainian Air Force, the past week was perhaps the most successful since the beginning of the Russian invasion: Within just over a week, the Ukrainians apparently shot down eight modern Russian military aircraft, probably ones supplied by Germany, Holland or the USA patriot-Air defense systems.
The last success from Kiev’s point of view came to this According to Ukrainian Air Force Chief Mykola Oleshchuk on Friday shortly before four o’clock in the afternoon: The Ukrainians fired a Russian one over the Sea of Azov A-50-reconnaissance aircraft – the counterpart to the Awacs-NATO aircraft. “The A-50 with the call sign Bayan has completed its last flight,” Oleshchuk wrote on the messaging app Telegram. The aircraft, equipped with numerous radar and radio systems, and its 15-man crew intercept radio messages, identify missile launches and targets in Ukraine for Russian bombing raids.
Nothing has been officially said yet, which means the Ukrainians have one for the second time in just a few weeks A-50 shot down. The planes are said to have a unit price of 350 million dollars, Russia is now only said to have more than that have nine more aircraft. The first A-50 was shot down by the Ukrainians on January 14th. Previous shootings suggest that this will happen again patriotsystem was used. Already in the days before the shooting down of the A-50 Ukraine apparently brought in two Russian ones Su-35 and another five Su-34-Fighter planes from the sky.
The shooting of the A-50 on Friday was also the subject of intercepted radio messages presumably from Russian pilots and was reported by the Russian military blogger Fighter bomber confirmed: As of that The author is considered to be Russian Air Force Captain Ilya Tumanov. Also Russia’s state news agency Novosti reported the crash of a plane.
Ukraine also uses its Patriot systems to shoot down Russian aircraft
This is particularly well known for defending against missile attacks patriotsystem was dem According to the US Congressional Research Service first developed to shoot down enemy military aircraft and only converted to shoot down attacking missiles after the Gulf War. Ukraine puts its patriot-Systems, however, not only for launching Russian supersonic missiles like the Kinschal but since May 2023 it has also been used to shoot down Russian aircraft. Operation and command over the patriotsystems are subordinate to the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the Air Force.
At the end of December 2023, according to the Air Force and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine shot five Russian ones within a few days Sukhoi-fighter planes – apparently also with missiles patriotsystems, including Germany delivered two to Ukraine.
On December 22, 2023, Ukraine’s air force commander Oleshchuk mocked President Vladimir Putin’s announcement a year earlier that Russia would supposedly be inferior to Russian technology patriot-Destruct systems quickly. “I don’t believe!”, Oleshchuk commented dry. Also air force spokesman Ihnat published a happy post with symbols for the downed Russian planes and a photo of one patriot-Systems. Ukraine is relocating patriot-Systems that primarily protect the capital, Kiev, apparently move to the east or south of the country as needed because, according to military experts, their missiles have a Range of a maximum of 160 kilometers.
The Patriot mission also poses dangers
The patriot-The operation also poses dangers: on January 24th, the Ukrainians apparently also took part in the shooting patriot-missiles Ilyushin-76transport plane that, according to US officials, appeared to be carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war New York Times. Ukraine cannot prevent widespread bombings by Russian fighter jets. Since March 2023, Russia has been using old Soviet bombs with an explosive load of up to 1,000 kilos using wings modernizedthat Russian bombers took them out can be dropped up to 70 kilometers away and they hit Ukrainian targets after a long glide.
According to Kiev air force specialist Valeriy Romanenko, the Russian military dropped “100 of these bombs within 24 hours” on Ukrainian positions at the end of 2023. In the recent fall of the important city of Avdiivka, the dropping of up to 80 Russian glide bombs a day also played a role for the soldier Yegor Sugar deployed in Avdiivka according to an important role. After Declarations The Ukrainian ambassador in Washington, Oxana Markarova, is also running out of missile supplies – in other words: patriot or Himars – to run out.