Did Belarusian rebels blow up one of Putin’s planes?

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has some awkward explaining to do to Vladimir Putin after a Russian military plane, being stored in Belarus, was reportedly blown up last weekend by Belarusian rebels. 

According to reports, one of the nine working Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft (Awacs) owned by the Russian military was attacked at the Machiulishchy airfield, just under eight miles from the capital Minsk, where it had been kept since early January this year. The aircraft, said to be worth £274 million, was capable of detecting and targeting air defence systems and formed a key part of Russia’s battlefield strategy.

A day after what sounded like two explosions came from the airbase on 26 February, the Belarusian partisan group BYPOL claimed responsibility for blowing the aircraft up. They said that two of their members, already safely removed from the country, had used drones to destroy the plane.

This claim has not been independently verified, but drone footage has emerged over the last couple of days appearing to show the kamikaze drones responsible performing reconnaissance work at the airfield, as well as actually planting the explosives.