The Russian military allegedly has only a handful of its prized A-50 spy planes left after recent losses, according to Ukrainian defense official Kyrylo Budanov on Sunday.
The Beriev A-50 plane, also known by the NATO reporting name “Mainstay,” is an airborne early warning and control jet used by Russia to help monitor Ukraine’s air defenses. The aircraft typically fly with a crew of up to 15 personnel and are estimated to cost over $300 million to produce. The Russian military currently deploys a modernized version of the plane, known as the A-50U, which, among other things, replaces the original craft’s analog systems with digital ones for faster signal tracking and target detection.
On Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed that it had shot down an A-50U craft over the Sea of Azov near the city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk, the second one of the prized spy planes that Kyiv had claimed responsibility for destroying this year. Despite those claims from Ukrainian officials, however, Russian military bloggers later claimed that the craft was accidentally brought down by “friendly fire.”
Budanov, head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, further claimed on Sunday that, in light of these two recent shoot-downs, the Russian military only had six A-50 spy planes left in operation, during an appearance at the “Ukraine Year 2024” forum. If one more were to be shot down, he said, Russian forces would be unable to have them deployed at all times of the day.
Alexey Sazonov/Getty Images
“There are still six planes left,” he said. “That’s two full shifts. Another A-50 will ‘fall’ and round-the-clock duty will have to be stopped.”
Newsweek could not independently verify the claims made by Budanov. Each side of the conflict is known to claim greater losses for the other, and lesser losses for themselves.
Russian officials have not yet confirmed or denied Ukraine’s claims about its A-50 planes. Newsweek reached out to the Russian defense ministry via email for comment. Any responses received will be added to this story in a later update.
Elsewhere, the Ukrainian government has claimed to have made significant strides in destroying other key pieces of Russian military hardware.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed that it had shot down 16 out of the 18 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia had deployed against them the previous night. The unmanned crafts were reported to have been shot down over the Poltava, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.