UPDATE: Belarusian partisans claim responsibility for blowing up £250m Russian spy plane at Belarus air base

Belarusian partisans claimed responsibility for blowing up Russia’s A-50U AEW&C at Machulishchi airfield in Belarus.

Monday, February 27 at 00:31am

As reported by various media sources, a group of Belarusian partisans has claimed responsibility for blowing up one of Russia’s most important aircraft earlier today. The incident occurred while the A-50U AEW&C aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces was parked at Machulishchi airforce base in Belarus.

The distinctive aircraft – believed to be worth £250m – arrived in Machulishchi, near the capital of Minsk, on December 14 last year amid a wider mass of Russian forces close to the Ukrainian border. It had been used since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February to locate bombing targets for Putin’s air force.

It was allegedly attacked using 2 drones, and according to BYPOL, the organisers of the sabotage operation are already out of the country and safe. Due to the aircraft’s enormous size, it has been called a convenient’ target due to its large fibreglass dome, where a rotating antenna of the Shmel radar system is located.

According to the Belarusian Hajun, it received information that President Lukashenko’s security services found a bag with drone control panels at the scene of the attack. It credited the info on the drone attack to Aliaksandr Azarau, the head of BYPOL.

We note that A-50U is quite a “convenient” target due to its large (more than 10 meters in diameter) fiberglass dome, where a rotating antenna of the Shmel radar system is located.
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— Belarusian Hajun project (@Hajun_BY) February 26, 2023

🚨 Belarusian partisans took credit for blowing up #Russia's A-50U Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) plane at an airfield in #Belarus. Multiple explosions extensively damaged the plane around 8am local time.
Russia previously sold 2 export variants to India for $1 billion. pic.twitter.com/XuW6xkf4gH

— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) February 26, 2023

Sunday, February 26 at 7:03pm

According to Russian sources this evening, Sunday, February 26, a Belarusian soldier has been killed on the Belarus border due to clashes with Ukraine forces. Also, there have been unconfirmed reports of explosions at Machulishchi airforce base in Belarus, with damage to at least one Russian military plane and snow removal equipment.

This information was published by motolko.help, a news site run by the Belarusian journalist Anton Motolko. His report claimed that at least one Russian aircraft – possibly an AWACS A-50 – was believed to have been damaged. Machulishchi airfield is known to be the location from which Russian MiG-31K and Il-76 A-50 DRLV aircraft take off.

It added though that all reports were unconfirmed at this time. Various local sources told the news outlet that they had heard the sound of pops, or explosions, at either 8am or 9:30am local time, depending on the sources.

No exact locations had been given to the outlet he explained, but again, the sounds are believed to have come from the direction of Machulishchi airfield. Military and police units were reportedly spotted in the vicinity of the base, with officers stopping vehicles and checking the documents of drivers.

The BYPOL organization also reported that a DRLO A-50 aircraft had been ‘blown up’ in Machulishchi. As reported by Flash News, BYPOL said: “The damage is serious, the plane will definitely not fly anywhere. The accident occurred while working near a snow removal aircraft. Belarusian partisans are consistent in expelling fascists from their land”.

"The damage is serious, the plane will definitely not fly anywhere. The accident occurred while working near a snow removal aircraft. "Belarusian partisans are consistent in expelling fascists from their land", – the initiative writes.

👉 Follow @Flash_news_ua

— FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) February 26, 2023

Only a few days ago there was talk of Moscow possibly preparing to launch a ‘red flag’ operation in Belarus with the aim of dragging the Minsk administration into the conflict.

On February 24, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its latest update regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said that Russia “appears to be setting conditions for false flag operations on the Chernihiv Oblast international border and in Moldova ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.

It was also noted by the Ukrainian Northern Operational Command. On its official Facebook page, it wrote: “The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Ukrainian defenders of violating territorial integrity”.

They added that: “the defence forces of the Severshchyna keep the situation under control and, unlike the enemy’s troops, have never resorted to provocations and do not have such a goal”.

Each soldier follows the generally accepted rules of warfare, not encroaching on other people’s territories, but exclusively protecting his native land from an insolent and insidious enemy. However, a Belarusian or Russian attack on northern Ukrainian regions is highly unlikely”, they concluded.

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