Russian propaganda spreads lies about Ukrainian pilot switching over to Russia

Russian propaganda is spreading disinformation about a pilot serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine flying over into Russia. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence has refuted this information.

Source: TASS, a pro-Kremlin Russian news outlet; Andrii Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, in a commentary for Ukrainska Pravda; an Ukrainska Pravda sources

Details: TASS, a pro-Kremlin Russian news outlet, claimed on Saturday that an "active Ukrainian Armed Forces pilot had flown to the Russian side". They claimed that they obtained this information from Aleksei Voyevoda, a Russian Ka-52 pilot who allegedly helped to organise the defection.

Andrii Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, told Ukrainska Pravda that this was a "belated Russian [informational-psychological operation] undertaken in response to the large number of Russian occupation fighters, including officers and pilots and their aircraft, surrendering and defecting to Ukraine".

Other sources told Ukrainska Pravda that all of the pilots in Ukraine’s Air Force and Land Forces are accounted for.

Background:

• On 23 August, reports emerged that a Russian Armed Forces Mi-8 helicopter had recently landed in Ukraine as a result of a long-running special operation by the DIU.
• The pilot and his family are in Ukraine, and the family was taken out of Russia in advance. The Mi-8 remained in Ukraine, along with the parts for the fighter jets it was supposed to deliver to the Russians.
• Maksim Kuzminov, the pilot of the Russian Mi-8 helicopter that landed in Ukraine said he was initially told he could surrender and bring the helicopter over to Ukraine by Ukraine’s National Police, with Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence joining the operation at a later stage.

Support UP or become our patron!