- A Russian pilot has defected to Ukraine with a Mi-8 military helicopter.
- Ukraine’s military intelligence service said part of a six-month-long secret plot.
- The helicopter’s other crew members, who were not aware of the plan, were “eliminated,” the agency said.
A Russian helicopter pilot landed on a Ukrainian airbase in what Ukrainian officials claim was a planned defection.
The pilot landed a Russian Mi-8 AMTSH at the Poltava military airbase in Kharkiv on Wednesday, taking the staff by surprise, the Kyiv Post reported.
The spokesman for Ukraine’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, Andriy Yusov, told local media that the incident was the culmination of a six-month-long secret plot, per the Post.
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, according to the Kyiv Post.
Ukraine’s Directorate of Military Intelligence said they were unwilling to surrender and were “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,” per the paper.
However, the Poltava air base is approximately 300 km, or around 186 miles, away from the front line, which makes an accidental landing unlikely, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov said in a Facebook post.
Butusov noted that this appears to be the first known intentional surrender of this type of Russian equipment.
Ukraine offers a cash bounty to Russian soldiers defecting with weapons
Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Along with the helicopter, the pilot also brought the parts of Su-27 and Su-30 SM multi-role fighter jets, supposedly being transported between two Russian air bases, according to the Kyiv Post.
The Mi-8 is commonly used as a transport helicopter, but it can also be reconfigured as an airborne command post, an armed gunship, or a reconnaissance platform.
Last year, Ukraine began offering large sums of money to defecting Russian soldiers who hand over military equipment.
Under this scheme, a helicopter is worth $500,000. It is unclear whether this Russian pilot, who has not been named, will be compensated.