An A-50 aircraft suffered only minor damage in the incident, President Alexander Lukashenko has reported
A Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft. © Sputnik / Anton Denisov
A Russian national recruited by Ukraine was behind an attempt to sabotage a Russian surveillance plane on an airfield near Minsk last week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Lukashenko confirmed media reports of a drone strike on the Machulishchy air base, but claimed the coverage exaggerated the damage suffered by the Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft stationed there.
The plane only received “scratches and a hole in the hull, which don’t prevent the military aircraft from performing its duties,” he said.
However, according to the head of state, Minsk still asked Moscow to take the aircraft back for repairs and replace it.
Belarusian security services were able to arrest the “terrorist” that carried out the attack, along with 20 of his accomplices, Lukashenko announced.
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The president described the attacker as “an IT specialist or someone versed in IT technologies,” and a citizen of Russia that had lived in Crimea holding both Russian and Ukrainian passports.
According to Lukashenko, the man was recruited by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) in 2014 and had undergone an extensive training program since then “to carry out terrorist attacks.”
The sabotage attempt on a Belarusian airfield had been carefully planned out and involved “state-of-the-art” technologies, including “control software developed by the CIA,” the head of state pointed out.
Those behind the attack refrained from using a larger UAV, as it would have been detected by Belarusian radars. Instead, they relied on a “small drone” model that could be easily purchased online, Lukashenko claimed. The specific UAV that targeted the Russian plane was made in China and sold in the US before arriving in Ukraine, he added.
The Russian side has not yet provided any comments on the alleged incident involving its plane.
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According to RIA-Novosti, the aircraft in question had been deployed in Machulishchy as part of a joint Russian-Belarusian military grouping created last year. Among other things, the plane took part in a drill staged by the allies between January 16 and February 1.
