Russians resort to alternatives for reconnaissance following A-50 aircraft loss

Photo: A-50 (Russian media)

In the south of Ukraine, there is an extremely high activity of Russian reconnaissance drones. They are collecting information along the contact line and in the depths of the region, according to Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine.

According to Humeniuk, this was caused by the downing of a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft.

“They are now trying to replace the A-50, which was shot down unplanned by the Russians. Now the activity of enemy reconnaissance drones is extremely high in our area of responsibility,” she says.

In particular, Humeniuk says that over a hundred drones of this type were spotted along the contact line and in deeper regions over the past day.

“They are trying to collect the information that the A-50 can no longer transmit. And that is why we see the non-specific activity of tactical aviation, which is more distant in the Black Sea, also concentrating its efforts on collecting relevant operational data,” emphasizes the head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine.

A-50 destruction

On the evening of February 23, RBC-Ukraine’s sources in the Ukrainian Defense Forces reported that a Russian A-50 aircraft was shot down over the Sea of Azov. It is worth adding that this is the second A-50 to be destroyed by our soldiers since the beginning of the full-scale war. Later, the intelligence service clarified that the A-50U is a new modernized version of the aircraft, and its cost is about $350 million.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, hinted that the A-50 was shot down by Ukrainian weapons.

Russians used the aircraft for long-range radar detection, control, and guidance to strike Ukraine with missiles from strategic aviation.

Yesterday, the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the operation to destroy the Russian A-50 aircraft had been in preparation for two weeks.

Read more about the uniqueness of the A-50 in RBC-Ukraine’s article.