Russian army disaster as £259m spy plane confirmed shot down in humiliating blow for Putin

The wife of a Russian pilot has confirmed that her husband's spy plane was shot down over the Sea of Azov. The Beriev A-50 was flying over the sea with an Il-22 command post aircraft in mid-January, when they came under fire from .

Despite sustaining serious damage, the Il-22 was able to make an emergency landing at Anapa airport. Up until now, the fate of the spy plane has remained a mystery, with Russia's Defence Ministry refusing to provide any official information. However, the wife of the commander of the plane told the Telegram Channel VChK-OGPU that the plane had crashed into the sea and the crew were listed as missing but presumed dead.

"They said it was listed as missing in action. But the chances are very slim," Victoria Levchenko said.

The command of the unit is waiting for the bodies to be retrieved from the sea, before officially commemorating the deaths of the soldiers.

Lieutenant Colonel Vyacheslav Levchenko was considered a "special professional" and one of the most experienced pilots in the Russian Federation.

The A-50 is a crucial spy plane that allows Russia to detect incoming Ukrainian missiles and identify ground targets.

It enables the military to monitor all objects in the airspace within a radius of up to 640 kilometres.

The planes are reported to cost around US$350 million (£259m). It is believed the Russian army possessed eight A-50s prior to the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Western military experts confirmed that an A50 was among the planes destroyed in Ukraine's audacious drone attacks on Russian airbases on Sunday.

The reconnaissance plane is nearly 50 metres long, 15 metres high, and has a wingspan of about 51 metres.

It can reach a maximum speed of 900 kilometres per hour and has a flight range of about 7,500 kilometres.

The VChK-OGPU Telegram Channel is said to be operated by the former Rosbalt journalists Alexander Shvarev and Alisher Abdullayev.

The channel writes extensively about Russia's law enforcement and intelligence communities. Russia's Justice Ministry designated VChK-OGPU a "foreign agent" in July 2024.