Fugitive helicopter pilot speaks about losses and troubles of the Russian Air Force

9 June, 2023 Lieutenant Dmitry Mishov of the Russian Armed Forces, May 2023. Photo credits: BBC A serviceman who was a navigator-operator of an attack helicopter has fled from Russia.

In an interview with the Russian service of the BBC, he spoke about Russian losses and troubles in the Russian Aerospace Forces.

26-year-old lieutenant Dmytro Mishov fled to one of the Baltic countries on May 28, and shortly after surrendered to the Lithuanian migration authorities. According to him, he was the assistant commander of a helicopter, and later became a navigator-operator of an attack helicopter. The Russian said that he had served in the 15th Army Aviation Brigade at the Veretie air base in the Pskov region of the Russian Federation.

This military unit has been participating in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since day one. The brigade is armed with the following attack helicopters: Ka-52, Mi-28N and Mi-35M, as well as Mi-26 and Mi-8MTV-5 transport helicopters.

Military ID of Lieutenant of the Russian Air Forces Dmitry Mishov, May 2023. Photo credits: BBC

According to Mishov, on the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was in a barracks in Belarus and "woke up to the message that he had to fly to Hostomel", but the flight was later canceled due to the losses of the invaders.

He stated that on the very first day of the invasion, the aggressor country lost "five aircraft and two crews". "When they said that there were no losses, a fellow student of mine died on the very first day. Five aircraft and two crews were lost there," Mishov noted. The Russian pilot told the BBC that he had submitted a report on his discharge from the armed forces of the Russian Federation on January 21, 2022, but he did not have time to leave before the start of the war, and therefore ended up in Belarus.

Mishov claims that he did not take part in hostilities, never flew into the territory of Ukraine, and only transported various cargoes for the Russian army through the territory of Belarus on the Mi-26 helicopter. However, this information cannot be verified at this time.

Personal badge of Lieutenant of the Russian Air Forces Dmitry Mishov, May 2023. Photo credits: BBC

He stayed there until April 2022, then was sent back to the unit to continue processing his discharge.

During the full-scale war with Ukraine, the regiment in which Mishov had served lost almost 20% of its helicopters. Before there were "40-50 of them", and over the past year two were burned down due to the actions of saboteurs, while another six or seven were shot down at the front. "Losses among pilots are high.

If we compare, say, with Afghanistan, I know that 333 helicopters were lost there. And here, 10 years of Afghanistan were repeated in a year," the BBC quotes Mishov. The Russian says that after Putin announced mobilization in September 2022, his dismissal was canceled.

Dmitry Mishov in helicopter during his studies.

Photo credits: BBC

At the end of October, Mishov had to return to the unit where Ukrainian saboteurs destroyed two Ka-52 attack helicopters at the Veretie air base (Ostrov-5). (The Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also reported about the incident on October 31). "I just returned to the unit, it happened at night... It turned out that two helicopters burned down completely, one Mi-28 was still under repair...

In a few days, explosives were found in the cockpit of another helicopter, which for some reason did not detonate," said the Russian pilot. Mishov says that in the conditions of war, the Russian military invents new schemes to make money and deceive the superiors. In particular, to receive a monetary reward for destroyed equipment.

"Suppose there is a damaged tank. And several helicopters shoot at it several times, and the air gunner, for a small fee, confirms each time that a new piece of equipment has been destroyed. And everyone gets paid for the same tank," the lieutenant shares details of the scheme.

Also, according to him, all military personnel try to emphasize that they are participating in military operations, even if it is not true.

Russian servicemen may be in the Russian Federation, but they are trying to make it appear that on paper they have been somewhere in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

Also, the Russian pilot knows a colleague who transported household appliances looted in Ukraine on his helicopter: "My friend was transporting, so to speak, trophies, which were actually just household appliances from Ukraine, and there were ATVs, motorcycles..."