A 28-year-old Russian helicopter pilot managed to defect to Ukraine. Now he reports on the events.
Kyiv – A Russian helicopter pilot ran into the Ukraine war crossed over to the Ukrainian side and was richly rewarded by Kiev: the deserter will receive half a million US dollars (around 463,000 euros), as announced at a press conference on Tuesday. But apparently everything could have turned out very differently, as a report on his spectacular escape shows.
Helicopter pilot manages spectacular flight to Ukraine: transponder switched off
The defected helicopter pilot Maksim Kuzminov had probably planned his escape well in advance, because he had already smuggled his family out of Russia beforehand. At the end of last year, Kuzminov contacted the Ukrainian military intelligence service, with whom he then worked out his sophisticated escape plan over a period of about six months. They communicated via an encrypted chat in the Telegram application. Anyone with large war equipment – such as a helicopter – out Russia deserted, received a $500,000 reward and a security guarantee from Kiev.
Accordingly, the deserter’s plan was to take his Mi-8 helicopter to the Ukraine set down and then hand over the helicopter to the Ukrainian armed forces. one report of Wall Street Journal According to the report, the 28-year-old flew at a height of around ten meters and had switched off his transponder. He was shot at from an unclear direction as he flew across the border into Ukraine, Kuzminov described Wall Street Journal according to the danger. He then managed to land as planned at a military airfield in Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine.
Drama in the Ukraine war: Helicopter pilot the only one who could fly: “No one could resist”
At first no one knew what was wrong with him, Kuzminow said about the beginning of his escape. “I was on board with two crew members. We had no weapons, our pilots fly without weapons,” said the 28-year-old. When the crew realized what Kuzminov intended, the two men panicked, the deserter told a news conference Tuesday how The Daily Beast reported. But “nobody could resist” because he was the only one who knew how to fly the helicopter, according to the pilot.
“I reassured the guys and told them everything is fine, good people live here and everything will be fine. But they got scared and behaved a little aggressively, and they ran out of the helicopter towards the border,” Kuzminov continued. According to the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, the two fleeing Russian soldiers were “eliminated”, like him Radio FreeEurope communicated. According to Ukrainian sources, the two crew members refused to surrender.
Now the deserter wants a report from The Daily Beast apparently join the Ukrainian Armed Forces and act there in the air operation of the Ukraine war. However, he called on his compatriots to follow his example and defect as well. “If you do what I did, you won’t regret it at all. You’ll have everything you need for the rest of your life,” said the 28-year-old in the documentary “Downed Russian Pilots“. Moscow initially did not comment on the defection of the helicopter pilot from its own ranks.
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