A Russian Mi-8 helicopter with the entire crew landed on the territory of Ukraine and surrendered to the Defence Forces, the editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, Yuriy Butusov, has said.
"This story promises to become legendary. A Russian Mi-8 combat helicopter with the entire crew flew to Ukraine and surrendered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This was reported by a Russian propaganda channel. The Russians claim that the reason for the flight was a navigational error, but there is no doubt that this is another Russian lie. After all, if the helicopter flew to the Poltava airfield, as reported by a Russian blogger, it is about 300 km from the front line, and the Russians could only land there deliberately, as a result of a well-prepared flight," he said.
Propagandists talk about navigational errors, but Butusov noted that the helicopter flies at a low altitude and low speed, so the crew can see all ground landmarks clearly.
"It is simply impossible to make a mistake at 300 km, it is a big fuel consumption. There can't be any accidents. If everything happened as the Russians wrote, it is possible that this is the first ever deliberate surrender of a Russian combat helicopter! This is just a sensation that will demoralise Putin's military aviation elite. We are awaiting details from Ukrainian official sources, but this story is expected to be in all the world's media. Did the helicopter crew decide to join the ranks of the Russian Freedom Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps? It would be interesting to hear a statement from the Russian pilots," the journalist concluded.
Later, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence confirmed this information, but promised to provide details later.
"There will be official information. Tentatively, yes, there is such information. We need to wait a bit, we are working with the crew in particular. Everything is fine, there will be news," Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, told the news telethon.