Posted on 08/24/2023 7:44:02 AM PDT by dennisw
A Russian pilot has defected to Ukraine with a Mi-8 helicopter, Ukraine's intelligence service said. The military-intelligence agency said it was part of a six-month-long secret plot.
The helicopter's other crew members, who were unaware of the plan, were "eliminated," the agency said.
A Russian helicopter pilot landed on a Ukrainian air base in what Ukrainian officials claimed was a planned defection.
The pilot landed a Russian Mi-8 AMTSh at the Poltava military air base in Kharkiv on Wednesday, taking the staff by surprise, the Kyiv Post reported.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's directorate of military intelligence, told local media that the incident was the culmination of a six-month-long secret plot.
He said the pilot's family had been brought from Russia to Ukraine before his defection.
Two other crew members on the helicopter were not aware of the pilot's plan, the Kyiv Post reported.
Ukraine's military-intelligence agency said they were unwilling to surrender and "eliminated," the paper reported.
Photos published by the Ukrainian outlet Pravda appear to show the helicopter and paperwork flecked with blood.
Pro-Russian social-media channels reported that the helicopter landed at the airfield by accident after the crew became "disoriented," according to the paper.
But the Poltava air base is about 300 km, or about 186 miles, away from the front line, which makes an accidental landing unlikely, the Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov said in a Facebook post.
Butusov added that this appeared to be the first known intentional surrender of this type of Russian equipment.
Ukraine offers a cash bounty to Russian soldiers defecting with weapons
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
More bad news for those supporting Russia’s war goals.
Not sure if I believe any of this, let’s see the video.
The existence of the helicopter at the airport, acknowledged by both sides, tends to confirm the "defection" angle.
RE: A Russian pilot landed a Mi-8 helicopter on a Ukrainian airbase in a daring defection
He was lucky he wasn’t shot down....
An old helicopter, but a useful addition to the Ukrainians.
How does it feel to have been wrong about this war for the past year and a half?
Business Inside Her = Globalist Stalinazi Propaganda
Pot - Kettle.
I can say there are many Ukrainian supporters that weren't complaining, even yearly, that Russia took over part of Ukraine, around 2014. Heck, even Ukraine let their territories go, after a while.
When Trump was in office, nothing further happened from Russia. It took corrupt, compromised Biden, and his same son, to force a larger war and assure Ukraine refused any peace accord possibility. It was then that FReepers supported Biden's position and still do, to this day.
Ukraine was fine with what Russia took, for years as were FReepers.
You left out the “/s.”
now, now Neocon Mark. The war is ending and despite Biden’s best effort, Zelensky is losing.
Looks like an expensive helicopter.
So how much money did US taxpayers pay this traitor pilot for the 60-year-old helicopter? When his crew was eliminated were their hands tied behind their backs like so many other POWs the Ukrainians murder?
Sick f’ing story.
You should take a closer look. There are plenty who advocate that Ukraine should surrender and let Russia keep its conquered territories. There are even some who think that Russia should take all of eastern Ukraine; and a few even all of Ukraine.
It’s snowing over there ?
Half a million US Taxpayer funds wasted.
Yes, clearly the war is lost now.
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