Fallen ‘hero’: Bloody face of pilot praised by Vladimir Putin for sorties in Syria shines around the world after his capture as eight Russian planes are shot down in one day
- In just 24 hours, eight Russian aircraft were destroyed, including one flown by a pilot Ukraine claims Putin celebrated for his sorties over Syria.
- The remarkable tally in such a short period of time once again shows that Russia’s military campaign is not going as it should.
- The loss of attack aircraft and combat helicopters would infuriate Putin, who believed his air force would prevail on the first day of the war.
In just 24 hours, eight Russian aircraft were destroyed, including one flown by a pilot Ukraine claims Putin celebrated for his sorties. Syria.
The remarkable tally in such a short period of time is further evidence that Russia’s military campaign is going wrong.
The loss of attack aircraft and helicopter gunships would infuriate Putin, who believed his air force would achieve superiority on the first day of the war.
In just 24 hours, eight Russian aircraft were destroyed, including one flown by pilot Major Krasnoyarsky (pictured), whom Ukraine claims was celebrated by Putin for his sorties over Syria.
The pilots were filmed pleading that they were “following orders” when they were captured.
Burning wreckage of a Russian Su-30 that crashed into a field in Ukraine on Saturday.
Footage posted online shows the pilot, reportedly from the downed helicopter, dressed in orange overalls, kneeling with his hands behind his head as his captor asks him questions.
Instead, its aircraft have proven vulnerable to Ukrainian defences, including the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system and man-portable rocket launchers donated by the UK and other NATO members.
The footage shows Russian pilots and navigators who survived the skirmishes telling their captors at gunpoint: “We were just following orders.” The release of the video appears to violate the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the use of prisoners of war for propaganda purposes.
In one of them, Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian Su-34 jet flying over the same region.
It is said to have been piloted by an officer who, according to Ukrainian sources, took part in illegal Russian military operations in Syria in 2016. He was shown wearing a bloody shirt with a bandage around his head.
An image of the pilot has also surfaced online, apparently posing alongside Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Another video shows a bleeding Russian pilot leaning against the wall of an agricultural building.
Major Krasnoyarsk (far right), a Russian pilot who was shot down and captured by the Ukrainians, previously participated in the Russian air raid on Syria, which killed many civilians.
He is believed to have ejected from his plane seconds before it crashed and caught fire. He suffered a head injury and looked like a concussion.
On another occasion, a Russian pilot was filmed kneeling in a field with his hands behind his head. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and parachuted from his Su-30SM multipurpose aircraft.
According to local reports, he was shot down by an S-300 missile over the Mykolaiv region in eastern Ukraine, about 40 miles from Kherson. He gave his name and told his captors that he was a flight commander of Russian military unit 59882 flying from the Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea, a peninsula illegally seized by Russia during its 2014 invasion.
Another pilot, also dressed in orange overalls and believed to be his colleague, was taken away by the Ukrainian military.
Western officials fear that the loss of even more Russian jets and helicopters will force Putin to rely even more on artillery, rather than air power, to bombard Ukrainian cities.
Since artillery is often less accurate than artillery shells fired from aircraft, this can result in more civilian deaths.
Russia has so far refused to use most of its roughly 300 fixed-wing combat aircraft in the war. This is partly due to Russia’s inability to destroy Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile systems.
Experts also believe Putin’s air force is running out of missiles after years of bombing Syria.