A Moscow court has convicted a Ukrainian military official in absentia for the downing of a $300 million A-50U spy plane.
Knewz.com has learned that the aircraft was shot down in February 2024 while flying over the Russian territory of Krasnodar Krai when Colonel Mykola Dzyaman, in charge of the 138th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), ordered his men to shoot it down.
Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, alleged that Dzyaman was aware that the aircraft was not directly involved in the hostilities and then placed him on its wanted list after charging him with terrorism in absentia.
According to Russia’s Kommersant, the Moscow court even assigned the Colonel-at-large a state lawyer who, it seems, objected to the ruling by default.
When asked why, Viktor Abashin told the press it “is just his position,” and that he “was not obliged to motivate at the moment.”
Despite his opening retort, he went on to elaborate, saying “every citizen has rights”—an ironic statement considering that Dzyaman is not a Russian citizen.
“This means objecting to the charges, filing statements and motions, etc.”
“Since we were charged in absentia,” Abashin concluded, “the accused could not exercise his rights, I could not help but object to the actions taken by the investigation.”
Notably, Ukrainian intelligence services were well aware of the spy plane’s downing and credited the military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) and the Air Force of Ukraine for the hit after noting that it crashed into the sea, per theKyiv Post.
Following the hit, Russia was alleged to have withdrawn five other aircraft from their areas of operations including those designated for the task of conducting strikes near the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.
According to another report by the Russia-based independent SOTA news (via Telegram), another bomber crashed during the same month after a “technical malfunction”.
The post depicted the burning aircraft corkscrewing toward the ground from a high altitude while flames poured from its tail.
According to the Russian Defense ministry, the Tu-22M3 bomber suffered said malfunction on its way back from a combat mission.
It further noted that the three crew members ejected and were found (one of whom died) while the search for a fourth was underway.
At the time, the Moscow Times(recently classified as a foreign agent by the Russian government) stated:
“The downing of a Russian bomber used to fire cruise missiles at Ukraine would be a highly symbolic win for Kyiv, which has been pounded by hundreds of overnight Russian aerial strikes since Moscow invaded more than two years ago.”
Two months after this attack, Reuters reported another hit. This time it was a Soviet-era S-200 long-range bomber directly involved in the attack on the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk region that left eight people including two children dead.
This aircraft was on its way back to its home base when Ukraine opened up on it from 180 miles away.
Ukraine is yet to comment on the sentencing of its Colonel Dzyaman.
