British Intelligence Explains Value Of IL-22M Shot Down By Rebellious Wagner Fighters

• 29.06.2023, 10:01

The loss will affect military operations in Ukraine.

Russia has used IL-22M aircraft to control the invasion force in Ukraine. The loss of one of them would have a negative impact on Russian air and ground operations.

This was reported by the UK Ministry of Defence on Twitter.

According to the report, Russian military helicopters and an IL-22M aircraft were reportedly shot down by the air defence forces of the Wagner group on June 24. The IL-22M is part of a relatively small fleet of up to 12 aircraft actively used for both air traffic control and radio relay tasks.

According to British intelligence, these special operations aircraft played a key role in organising Russian forces in their war against Ukraine. As valuable assets, they operated within the security of Russian airspace, well beyond the reach of Ukrainian air defence systems.

The loss of this aircraft is likely to have a negative impact on Russian air and ground operations.

"In the short term, the psychological shock of such a loss of a large number of crews will almost certainly undermine the morale of the Russian air force. In the longer term, there is a real possibility that current task levels may have to be reduced in order to operate the remaining fleet safely. It would probably undermine Russia's ability to command and coordinate its forces, especially during periods of intense operations," the British Defence Ministry said.

As reported by Charter97.org, the leader of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced the beginning of a military coup. On June 24, the troops of the Wagner PMC took Rostov-on-Don and marched through Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk regions of the Russian Federation. Wagner's convoys with armoured vehicles entered Moscow Region and came within 200km of Moscow, after which Prigozhin announced the turn around of his army.