ISW analyzes Russia's response to downing of its aircraft over Sea of Azov

That's according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

The Russian information space largely denied that Ukrainian forces struck Russia's A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and instead strangely claimed that the aircraft was destroyed by friendly fire from Russian air defenses.

The A-50 is used to coordinate Russian air and possibly air defense activity, and the claim that Russian air defenses shot down the A-50 would amount to a calamitous failure on the part of Russian forces, if true, ISW analysts said.

According to ISW, a Russian insider source claiming to be an employee of an unspecified Russian security structure stated that unspecified Russian actors created a "duck" (a Russian term for a false claim) about how Russian forces shot down the A-50 to reassure Russian pilots that missions over the Black Sea and Sea of Azov are still safe and that human error was the cause of the incident.

"It is unclear why Russian pilots should be more comfortable with the idea that their ground-based air defenders are so incompetent," ISW experts wrote.

Earlier reports said that late on January 14, over the Sea of Azov, the Ukrainian military had destroyed a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft and severely damaged an Il-22 airborne command post aircraft.