Alexander Lukashenko told the first details of the drone incident at the Machulishchi military airfield. The first reports of a copter attack on a Russian plane appeared on February 26, and on March 7, Lukashenka, in a conversation with journalists, announced the detention of alleged saboteurs involved in the attack.
At the Belarusian military airfield “Machulishchi”, located in the suburbs of Minsk, Russian aircraft are deployed, among other things. Among them is the A-50 early warning aircraft. It was created in the late 1970s on the basis of the Il-76 military transport aircraft. A distinctive feature of the A-50 is a large radar dish mounted on the roof of the fuselage.
After the first reports in the Belarusian telegram channels about the drone attack on the Russian A-50, the parties refrained from commenting. The first footage, where, as claimed, the drone flies into the territory of the airfield, appeared on March 1. On the same day, the Belarusian channel ATN filmed the takeoff of the whole and unharmed A-50 from the airfield.
Then there was an extended video from the drone’s camera, which shows how the drone takes off in the forest, a hundred meters from the airfield. The drone reaches the A-50 aircraft in the parking lot, circles and lands on the fuselage. After that, the recording is terminated.
Drone video Buisness FM asked Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to evaluate:
“I assume that this is a household ordinary drone. In the Chinese drone, the blades do not fall into the frame, that is, most likely, it is still some kind of self-made unit. Today, components are sold by catalog without restrictions. A rather primitive device that flies, I think, at a maximum distance of five kilometers. It was launched somewhere behind a fence. Such drones are difficult to detect because they are invisible on conventional radars. Now some technologies are just emerging to distinguish such a plastic small drone from a bird. They work against such drones by visual detection. He can be heard, I think he delivered an explosive element weighing 300 grams, planted and disabled the antenna. He can hardly do more.”
On Tuesday, March 7, Lukashenka said that, as he put it, a “saboteur of the Ukrainian special services” who was flying a drone had been detained. The President specified that it was an IT specialist and that he was recruited by the SBU in 2014. The saboteur entered the territory of Belarus from Ukraine through Poland and Latvia. Together with the drone operator himself, 20 more “accomplices” were detained throughout the republic, the Belarusian president noted.
The A-50 aircraft did not receive significant damage, except for a couple of scratches and one hole in the hull, which does not prevent the military aircraft from performing its duties, Lukashenka said. Nevertheless, Minsk asked the Russians to take this plane into service and send another one to replace it. According to Belarusian opposition publications, this A-50 aircraft was eventually sent for repairs to Taganrog.
Lukashenka also explained why the airfield security did not notice the drone: according to him, the copter was small. And if they had used a large one, of course, they would have tracked it, Lukashenka added.
If it were a long-range drone that is launched at coordinates, it could be knocked off course by electronic warfare. In this case, the operator came close to the airfield, launched the drone, as they say, “from hand”, and it flew about 500 meters to the aircraft. In this case, the so-called drone strikers will help, explains military expert, founder of the Military Russia portal Dmitry Kornev:
“The drone itself is visible. A shadow is visible on the body of the aircraft. The drone is relatively small. This is probably a DJ Mavic drone. Drones of this type are usually used for surveillance, video filming, but theoretically, yes, such a drone can carry some kind of warhead. It is possible to provide an area in which the use of drones of this kind is impossible. These are specific guns, they are called drone strikers. They are designed to shoot down, cut off communication with small-sized drones. If they were at the disposal of the security service, if they saw this drone, they could use such systems.”
The Russian and Ukrainian defense departments did not comment on the Machulishchi incident at the time of publication of the article. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected reports of the involvement of Ukrainian special services in the attack on the plane.
Shortly after Lukashenka’s speech, the Belarusian media showed footage of the man being detained in a private house. It is alleged that this is the saboteur involved in the Machulishchi incident. He introduced himself as Nikolai Shvets, a citizen of Ukraine, and said that he had entered the territory of Belarus through Russia.
