Russian plane damaged
Explosions at the military airfield near Minsk
02/26/2023, 8:07 p.m
Several explosions occur at a military airport not far from the Belarusian capital Minsk. A reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian armed forces is said to have been badly damaged. Russian propagandists assume a drone attack. Opposition activists speak of an act of sabotage by Belarusian partisans.
According to reports from Belarusian opposition activists, several explosions have occurred at a military airfield near Minsk. A Russian A-50 reconnaissance aircraft was damaged. According to the BYPOL initiative, two explosions damaged the front and middle parts of the aircraft, as well as the onboard electronics and radar antenna. “The damage is serious, the plane will definitely stop flying,” read the activists’ report, which was published on social media. The Beriev A-50 is a four-engine early warning aircraft developed in the Soviet Union.
“Belaruski Hayun”, an independent Belarusian military monitoring medium, reported on Telegram that the plane may have been “damaged by dropping an unidentified object from a high altitude”. Russian military bloggers Yuri Kotenok and Semyon Pegov also wrote on Telegram that the airfield had been attacked by drones. They did not provide any further information.
Local residents had previously reported loud explosions, according to the independent news portal Zerkalo. After the incident, they saw a large gathering of military personnel, police officers and rescue workers near the airfield, it said. Cars were checked near the airport.
The incident has not yet been officially confirmed. When asked by the Zerkalo journalists, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said that although there had been a “bang”, “nothing bad had happened”. As the opposition newspaper “Nasha Niwa” reported, citing BYPOL head Alexander Azarov, “Belarusian partisans were involved in the acts of sabotage at the airfield.”