The Ukrainian military has destroyed a Russian A-50 surveillance aircraft, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on February 23 after Ukrainian military and regional officials said that at least five people were killed and 27 others were wounded in a new round of Russian drone and missile strikes on several Ukrainian regions.
"The A-50 with the call sign 'Bayan' has flown its last!" Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. “Congratulations to the occupiers on the Defender of the Fatherland Day,” Oleshchuk said, referring to a Russian military holiday on February 23.
Ukrainian military intelligence said the plane was downed over the Sea of Azov, calling the loss of the spy plane "another serious blow to the potential and capabilities of terrorist Moscow."
Videos posted on social media showed multiple flashes of light against the night sky followed by another image showing a large blaze on the ground in what appeared to be a rural area.
The Russian military didn't comment on Ukraine's claim, but emergency authorities in Russia's Krasnodar region said firefighters were responding to a plane crash.
If confirmed, the plane's downing would mark the loss of the second A-50 in just over a month. The other one was brought down over the Sea of Azov on January 14, Ukrainian officials said then. The Russian military never commented on the Ukrainian claim, but Russian bloggers and some media confirmed the aircraft's loss.
Experts have said Russia could struggle to replace the A-50 because of U.S. and European sanctions. Some of the plane’s critical hardware is produced by Intel and other Western manufacturers.
Even if Russia could get around the sanctions, it might be difficult for its armed forces to replace the 10 to 11 crew men who operate the A-50’s tracking equipment because it takes years to train such specialists.
The A-50, capable of relaying information to troops on the ground about battlefield movements up to 650 kilometers away, reportedly costs $330 million. Media reports suggest that Russia may have seven A-50s left in operation. Belarusian partisans in February 2023 claimed to have blown up an older-version of the plane.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its evening summary on February 23 that Ukrainian forces held back Russian troops along the entire front line. The summary said that there were 58 combat clashes on the front line during the day.
Ukraine's armed forces are holding back the Russian attacks, particularly in the area around Maryinsk, where Russian troops tried to break through the defenses 31 times, the General Staff said, noting air strikes in other parts of the Donetsk region.
The General Staff said that the armed forces had also repelled six attacks in the area of Bakhmut and nine attacks in the area of Avdiyivka.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Earlier on February 23, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 23 out of the 31 drones launched by Russia at the Odesa, Mykolayiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions, the air force said in a statement.
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Additionally, Russia launched an S-300 antiaircraft missile and three Kinzhal cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets.
In the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, the debris from a Russian drone fell on a building in the coastal area, killing three people, the military said.
In Dnipro, the capital of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone hit a high-rise apartment building, killing one woman and wounding eight, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak reported on Telegram.
Rescuers retrieved the woman's body from the rubble of a house damaged by the overnight drone attack Lysak said.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, a 68-year-old man was killed in a missile strike in the city of Myrnohrad, Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of the office of the president, said on Telegram.
More than 20 houses and an apartment building were also damaged in the strike, Kuleba said.
The Donetsk region's governor, Vadym Filashkin, said at least 19 people were wounded in the strike.
As the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine nears the two-year mark, the country's infrastructure has sustained almost daily destruction.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov estimated that it would take up to a decade to rebuild Ukraine even if the war were to end now.
"I think the most urgent damage could be repaired in two or three years. But overall it would take five to 10 years," Kubrakov told the German news agency dpa.
He cited figures advanced by the World Bank, the European Union, and the United Nations that put the cost of the war damage so far at 500 billion euros ($541 billion).