“Who did this?” the Ukrainian air force quipped.
It’s official. Russian and Ukrainian sources have confirmed that Ukrainian air-defenses on Sunday hit, over southern Ukraine and the Sea of Azov, two of Russia’s rarest and most valuable support planes: a Beriev A-50 radar early-warning plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.
“Who did this?” the Ukrainian air force quipped. The answer, it seems, is the air arm’s 90-mile-range Patriot PAC-2 air-defense missiles.
The jet-propelled A-50—one of nine A-50M/Us in service—fell into the Sea of Azov in flames, likely killing everyone on board: potentially 15 people including high-ranking officers and highly-trained radar specialists.
The propeller-driven Il-22, with up to 10 people aboard, managed to land in Anapa on the Russian side of the Sea of Azov’s southern coast. “Urgently requesting ambulance and fire crew,” the crew radioed as they wrestled their shrapnel-holed plane toward the air base.
Photos of the damaged Il-22, snapped after it landed, illustrate the extent of the damage—a mangled tail fin and fuselage—and also reveal the plane’s exact variant.
