Shocking footage showed the Russian A-50 plane catch alight and fall to pieces mid-air – reportedly brought down by friendly fire.
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Russian sources reported that the Beriev A-50 “Mainstay” airborne was brought down by friendly fire over the Sea of Azoz, an inland shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea.
The sea, currently under Russian occupation, is bounded by Russia on the east and by Ukraine on the northwest and southwest.
In one video, an aircraft could be seen emitting light as it travelled through the sky before exploding in a fireball.
The same video then cut to a shot of flames roaring from the ground and plumes of dark smoke filling the air.
Another clip of the crash’s aftermath showed a bright orange blaze near the silhouette of a shed or house.
An A-50, which generally flies with a crew of 15, reportedly costs more than $330million (£260million) to produce.
Today was the second time a Russian A-50 was downed since Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, with another A-50 shot down over the Sea of Azoz in January.
The first A-50 spy plane was believed to have been shot out of the sky by Ukrainian forces using a secret Nato “miracle weapon”.
An IL-22M bomber, worth about £28million, was also hit but managed to make its way back to Anapa airport with a number of casualties.
Russian Telegram channel Military Informant suggested an unnamed “miracle weapon” provided by Nato had been used in the attack, as Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergey Markov spoke of “use of a new type of weapon by the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.
Ukrainian commander in chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi later insisted that his forces had destroyed both the A-50 and the IL-22.
The loss of a A-50 spy plane is especially significant to the Russians.
According to British intelligence, the Mainstay is “a key enabler for Russian operations over Ukraine, providing airborne early warning of threats as well as command and control functionality”.
Although Russia claimed friendly fire was to blame for the latest downing, there was some speculation that a technical malfunction may have contributed to the crash.
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