Russian A-50 was just relocated from its base in Krymsk near the Eastern Black Sea to Ivanovo near Moscow. Afraid of getting shot down by “friendly fire” it seems.
ISW reports (15 jan):
“Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command stated that Russia had only three A-50s and six modernized A-50Us in service prior to this strike...
...source claiming to be an employee of an unspecified Russian security structure claimed 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.