Expert Reveals Why Russia Was Able to Down Two Dozen Ukrainian Jets in Five Days

The A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft has played a key role in Russia's air defense systems destroying Ukrainian warplanes, Yury Knutov, Russian military historian and political commentator, told Sputnik.

The Russian army now possesses air defense missile systems that have shot down a total of 24 Ukrainian jets in five days, the country’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated on Wednesday.

All these warplanes had probably been downed by the long-range S-400 air defense system, Knutov maintained, recalling that the Russian Defense Ministry is yet to confirm the information on the type of air defenses.

He also suggested that the Russian military could use the S-300 system in tandem with the Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft to destroy Ukrainian planes.

“So, thanks to their ability of flying at a high altitude, the A50s can detect enemy aircraft that take off from closed or clandestine Ukrainian military airfields, or even from sections of highways,” Knutov explained.

As for the S-300 missile interceptor, it “reaches a certain area thanks to either an inertial guidance system or commands that are sent directly from the multifunctional radar station of the A50 aircraft,” according to him.

“And then the interceptor itself begins to search for a target, pinpointing and ultimately destroying it. The range [of the air defense system] here can be colossal, up to 400 kilometers, or even more,” the political commentator pointed out.

He stressed that the Russian air defenses downing 24 Ukrainian aircraft in five days indicates “the competent use of our anti-aircraft missile systems and a change in tactics of the air defense forces.”

“This, along with the use of the A-50 planes, allows us to resolve the problem of not only detecting enemy aircraft, but also destroying it with high efficiency,” Knutov underlined. He added that “this is something that will in turn force NATO countries to muse about whether Ukraine really needs [the US-made] F-16 aircraft, which may face the same fate as the Soviet-made Su-27 and MiG-29 fighter jets of the Ukrainian Air Force,” Knutov said apparently referring to the Russian Defense Ministry’s recent information about the downed Ukrainian Su-27s and MiG-29s in the special military operation zone.

Moscow earlier pledged to account for the deployment of F-16s into its military strategy, and warned that such an "escalation scenario" carries "enormous risks" for the West. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, stated that Washington and its NATO allies are creating risks of direct confrontation with Russia, which could lead to catastrophic consequences. He added that Moscow would consider the delivery of nuclear-capable F-16s to Kiev as a threat from the West.