- Shocking images and video show a destroyed Russian Il-22 command plane.
- Wagner Group forces are said to have shot down the plane and killed its crew during a mutiny.
- Prigogine said he regretted destroying the Russian aircraft, but insisted that Russian forces were attacking Wagner’s forces.
Shocking photos and video show one Russian Il-22M aircraft wrecked after it was shot down during Wagner’s armed uprising over the weekend. The Russian military has a limited supply of these weapons.
An Ilyushin Il-22M aircraft – a valuable airborne command post operated by the Russian Air Force – is believed to have been shot down by Wagner Group forces during an uprising against Russian military leadership.
—OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 25, 2023
A video of the crash site shared by an analyst with the Naval Analytical Center shows fuming debris from the plane spewing into a field.
—OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 25, 2023
According to open-source intelligence monitor OSINTdefender, Wagner’s forces are believed to have shot down the Il-22 with a medium-range surface-to-air missile asset, the Pantir-1 air defense system.
“Total inventory of IL-22/Il-22M/PP” [the Russian] The Aerospace Force has 20 people. So this is not a material loss. ” Franz Stephan GadiA consulting senior fellow on cyberpower and future conflicts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies noted that the total number of “modernized Il-22M airborne command post aircraft” in the Russian fleet is only 12.
The video shows the moment the plane fell out of the sky and the aftermath of the crash.
—OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 25, 2023
OSINTdefender reported that all 10 crew members are believed to have died in the accident. Their identities were released by Russian sources on Tuesday.
— KIU • Russian officer killed in Ukraine 🇨🇿🇺🇦 (@KilledInUkraine) June 27, 2023
According to Ukrainian and expert observers, Wagner shot down six Russian helicopters in addition to the Il-22 aircraft, killing a total of 13 pilots. Michael CoffmanDirector of Russian Studies at CNA.
In an 11-minute audio message posted to Telegram on Monday, Prigozhin, whose rebellion ended in a stalled ceasefire, said: “It’s a pity that we had to hit the air facilities, but those facilities were bombed. They dropped them and launched missile attacks,” he said.
It is unclear how many, if any, Wagner soldiers were killed in the alleged attack.