Ukrainian Air Force spokesman: Mačuliščy blasts “great news”

February 27, BPN. Sabotage at the Mačuliščy airfield near Minsk that supposedly destroyed Russia’s early warning and control aircraft A-50 is “great news for Ukraine,” Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat has told Ukrainian television.

“This plane is constantly in the air… it conducts radar reconnaissance. It scans the territory while our air force units are working and determines their location. The A-50 also monitors the takeoff, landing and flight directions of our aircraft, and accompanies cruise missile attacks,” Ihnat said (quotes rendered from Russian).

According to him, the “unique” aircraft is “very important for combat operations.”

“Our allies have such aircraft. Ukraine would also like to have such aircraft,” the colonel said.

On February 26, Telegram channels, including those monitoring military activity in Belarus, reported several explosions at the airfield, claiming that a Russian aircraft was damaged.

According to Alaksandr Azaraŭ, who heads the ByPol association of former security officers, the act of sabotage was performed by several Belarusian partisans participating in the Płan Pieramoha (Victory Plan). They used two drones to destroy the A-50 aircraft, he said.

“There were two explosions: in the nose and in the middle. All the people involved have fled abroad. The damage to the aircraft is such that it cannot be used any longer. We hope so, but let’s wait and see,” Azaraŭ told BPN.

The head of ByPol said Łukašenka had promised that the Russian troops in Belarus were safe, “but our work demonstrates that Belarus still has partisans and that not everyone is ‘behind the baseboard,’ as the security forces like to say.”

The Belarusian authorities did not comment on reports of the incident. However, ahead of his February 28 visit to China, Alaksandr Łukašenka demanded that armed units be “extremely disciplined.” There were also reports of more thorough checks on the Polish-Belarusian border, car inspections around Mačuliščy and security forces’ visits to “unreliable” citizens.