The loss of the A-50 Mainstay aircraft will be significant because it is important for Russian air operations to “provide a picture of the combat airspace”, the British Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday morning in response to information provided by the Belarusian opposition. that partisans damaged a Russian military plane at the airfield near Minsk. Neither Russia nor Belarus have officially confirmed the incident.

The Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL said on Monday that it had used drones to strike Machulishchi airfield, 12 km from Minsk, seriously damaging a Beriev A-50 air early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft.

Attribution and damages have not been officially confirmed. However, the loss of the A-50 Mainstay would be significant, as it is critical to Russian air operations in providing the combat airspace picture,” said the latest British intelligence assessment.

This would likely leave 6 operational A-50s in service, further limiting Russia’s air operations.

Several Belarusian opposition sources and Russian military bloggers reported that Belarusian guerrillas attacked the plane with explosives dropped from drones, but there was no visual evidence or official confirmation of the attack as of press time.

Draconian control at the border of Belarus

Latvian Russian-language opposition newspaper Meduza reported that military personnel, ambulances, investigators, traffic police and a helicopter were present at the airfield after the attack, while police searched nearby houses to catch those planning the attack.

The border police of Belarus increased checks on those leaving the country immediately after the attack, the central service of Free Europe also notes.

People who wanted to leave Belarus said that border guards also checked their luggage and cars.

Available satellite images confirm that on February 19, the Russian A-50 was at the Machulyshchi air base.

A satellite image obtained by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) via Planet.com dated February 19 shows where the plane was normally parked and where it may have been at the time of the incident.

According to OSINTdefender, the damaged A-50 aircraft with the registration number RF-50608 was in Belarus after Belarus-Russia air force exercises in January and flew at least 12 flights from Machulysh, and this is indeed the aircraft in satellite images of the airbase on February 23.

According to ISW, the Russian military will use only about 10 airworthy A-50 aircraft.

Belarus received air defense systems

Belarus received military equipment from Russia, including an air defense system, a day after an attack claimed by partisans. At the same time, President Lukashenko claimed that threats to Belarus require it to intensify domestic military-industrial production.

Lukashenko also noted that the Belarusian defense industry can produce weapons, as Belarus has access to microelectronics, optics and other components imported from post-Soviet states that have kept Soviet stocks of these products.

The attack of the Russian radar from the air base near Minsk poses a real threat to the stability of Belarus and proves to Moscow that Belarus is not a reliable neighbor, political scientist Valery Karbalevich believes in an editorial of the Belarusian service of Free Europe. radio station.

Karbalevich notes that the Minsk authorities were silent about the attack, which the artisans announced, although all the information about the flight of the expensive A-50 plane, valued at 330 million dollars, appeared in the press.

Silence in Minsk

The silence in Minsk can be explained by the scale of the attack, destroying the myth that Belarus is an “island of calm, peace, order and security”, while there is a war in Ukraine and people are dying from cold and hunger in Europe.

The drone attack puts Belarus’ air defense system in a bad light, reminiscent of a 2012 incident in which a Swedish plane entered airspace and released teddy bears with a pro-democracy message also near Minsk, an incident that resulted in the release of two generals.

Karbalevich emphasizes that now the situation is much more serious, since it is an attack on a military base. And Minsk does not manage to stand up to Moscow, to which it promised to be a reliable partner in the face of its “adversaries” from the West.

The Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, did not comment on the attack report, saying it was a problem related to Beleras, which it said denied damaging the radar plane, but authorities in Minsk did not deny or confirm the opposition’s claims.