Belarusian anti-government activists have reported destroying a sophisticated Russian military surveillance plane in a drone strike at an airfield near Minsk.
Neither Russia nor Belarus have confirmed the attack on the spy plane, a Beriev A-50 jet believed to be worth around $330 million, near the Belarusian capital.
The aircraft, which bears the NATO reporting name ‘Mainstay’, is an airborne early warning aircraft with command and control capabilities and the ability to track up to 60 targets at a time.
“They were drones (which carried out the attack). The participants in the operation are Belarusians,” Aliaksandr Azarov, head of the Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL, said on the organization’s Telegram messaging app and Poland-based Belsat news channel, according to Reuters.
However, Azarov did not provide immediate evidence to back up his claim.
Belarus, a staunch ally of Russia, has allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch attacks on Ukraine, but has so far refrained from getting directly involved in the war.
BYPOL, which includes former law enforcement officers who support opposition politicians, has been classified as a terrorist organization by Minsk.
The Kremlin declined to comment on Azarov’s claim, saying the alleged incident had occurred on the territory of Belarus, which it said had denied it.
Franak Viacorka, an adviser to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said in a Twitter post that two Belarusian “partisans” had been involved in the attack on the Machulishchy airbase outside Minsk.
He said the drones had damaged the front and center parts of the A-50 plane, including the aircraft’s radar antenna.
The two people who had carried out the attack were now safely outside of Belarus, he said.
“I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the Russian hybrid occupation of Belarus and fight for the freedom of Ukraine,” opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya wrote on Twitter, linking to a report by his adviser Franak Viacorka.
There have been several acts of sabotage in Belarus and in the Russian border regions with Ukraine, especially in the railway system, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Belarusian human rights group Vyasna said Monday that a woman was detained in Machulishchy, where the airbase is located. She said that she did not know the reason for the arrest.
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