(Kyiv) Ukraine’s air force said Monday it had destroyed two Russian airborne command planes over the Sea of Azov, in what would be a major blow to Russia in an area it is supposed to control .
Asked about this during a press briefing, the Kremlin spokesperson could not say anything. “We have no information” on this, said Dmitri Peskov, before referring to the Russian Ministry of Defense which has generally remained silent on its losses since the start of the Russian invasion.
“I thank the Air Force for this perfectly planned and executed operation in the Azov Sea region! », Reacted the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army Valery Zalouzhny.
According to Kyiv, an A-50, a radar and airborne command plane equivalent to the AWACS used by NATO, crashed in the Sea of Azov.
The second aircraft, an Il-22 serving as a command post, was hit but managed to land in Anapa, in southern Russia, but the damage is such that it is considered “destroyed”, according to the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat.
“It cannot be ‘fixed’,” he said, sharing a photo of a seriously damaged plane.
AFP is unable to verify these claims from the Ukrainian side.
Yuri Ignat added that the plane had “caught fire” and that there were “injured” among its crew.
Initially, Kyiv indicated that the two planes had been shot down.
These planes are used for intelligence, target identification and troop coordination.
Several generally well-informed Russian military bloggers have been vague about the incidents involving the A-50 and IL-22, but have confirmed losses and damage.
Alexandre Kots, a war correspondent loyal to the Kremlin, spoke on his Telegram channel of a “fallen” A-50 plane and a “saved” IL-22.
The Telegram channel WarGonzo was moved by “the death of our fighters” regarding the A-50, and also claimed that the second plane seemed to have been able to “land”, although damaged.
The Rybar channel, close to the Russian army and widely followed, spoke on Sunday evening of a “dark day” for the Russian air forces “if the information is confirmed”.
Russia has repeatedly claimed to have air supremacy over Ukraine, but in reality this has never been lasting or complete.
Western military aid has also strengthened Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defense for almost two years, in order to protect the country from the volleys of missiles and drones that Russia sends almost daily on Ukrainian cities.
Moscow says it has sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war
Russia said Monday it had sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers, prisoners of war, to heavy prison terms, almost two years after the start of the Russian offensive.
Thousands of soldiers have been captured by each of the two camps, although their exact number is not public.
In recent months, Moscow has also increased the number of trials of certain prisoners, accusing them of war crimes. These prosecutions were denounced by Kyiv and human rights organizations.
Russian authorities accuse these soldiers, many of whom were taken prisoner during the siege of Mariupol in 2022, of abuses against civilians. However, it was the Russian army which carried out a devastating siege of Mariupol, causing, according to Kyiv, tens of thousands of deaths.
PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, particularly captives from the siege of Mariupol, hold posters reading “Free the defenders of Azovstal” as they demand their release during a rally in Kyiv on January 7.
Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, declared that “200 Ukrainian servicemen [avaient été] sentenced to long prison terms for killing civilians and mistreating prisoners of war.
Russia intends to “continue” to try soldiers from the Kyiv army, including “senior officials,” he assured in an interview with the state agency Ria Novosti, published Monday.
Moscow, on the other hand, has never investigated the war crimes of which its soldiers are accused, such as the Boutcha massacre, which Russia has described as Western staging.
It also denies hitting civilian targets and considers itself not responsible for the destruction of cities like Bakhmut or Mariupol.
At the beginning of January, the two countries announced, however, that they had released several hundred prisoners of war, the first exchange of this type since the summer and the largest since the start of the Russian assault.
Furthermore, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee said that the number of trials for “extremism” in Russia had increased by 62% in 2023 compared to the previous year, a figure which reflects the intensification of the repression against the opposition.
Authorities have also opened 273 investigations for “spreading false information” about the Russian army, he added, an accusation used to muzzle critics of the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
Alexander Bastrykin also spoke of acts of sabotage committed on Russian railway lines for the benefit of Ukraine in border regions, but also in Siberia or in the Far North.
At the end of the year, Kyiv, for example, claimed responsibility for an attack on trains carrying fuel in the Russian Far East, thousands of kilometers from the front.