Nice

"The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi confirmed the information about the destruction of a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and an IL-22M11 air control center."

Half a billion down the drain not to mention upto 15 crew members.

Incredible for an asymmetrical war in which one side barely even has an air force to speak of.

Ya if Ukraine actually bagged an awacs that would be huge. Russian sources claim it was friendly fire but ima go with Ukraine on this one. Was it a plane or sam that got it? Afaik no awacs has ever been downed before. Also the senior military personnel in these things is almost as valuable as the plane itself.

The bigger picture is that this is only a small amount of good news for Ukraine.

However, if it is true that the Russian air force lost an A-50 over the Azov sea, what it reaffirms is that this invasion has been a catastrophic and embarrassing failure for the Russian military.
Two years into an invasion that was meant to be over in weeks and Russia is losing half a billion dollar planes to a country with effectively no air force and no navy.

At the current trajectory this war will make the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan look like a stroll in the park.

The silence is deafening.
Guess we have to wait for another pyrrhic victory of Russias to reinvigorate the fanatics.

Day 691 of the walls are closing in and Ukraine on the brink of collapse.

I think the silence would be more conspicuous from the ukrainian side. Shouldn't we be hearing more about how Russia has still not taken Avdiivka and gas prices in the EU have dropped below 30 eurobuck/mwh again after the october spike, despite the cold snap, as reserves look healthy again?
But I mean, if the best news Ukraine has is that Russia might have derped and shot down one of their own A-50s, which they'll replace by activating another of the half their fleet they keep in storage, then not sure what all the US defense spending is supposed to accomplish. Heck maybe we should send missiles to Russia so they can shoot themselves

Read my above post it essentially agrees with your sentiment of this being only a small positive for Ukraine.

What it would be is a massive military failure by Russia, again. The first and only time a long range early warning aircraft has been brought down; In a conflict where the opponent effectively has no airforce or navy.
Djunior even told us that all of Ukraines runways were destroyed. That aged like milk.

So where is Zelensky going to retire to when Ukraine collapses? My money is on Florida.

The Shire.

Probably Belgorod or Sevastopol at this rate