Ukrainian pilot reveals top secret mission in last fortress of Mariupol

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 The flights of Ukrainian pilots to supply forces at the Azovstal factory in Mariupol city are likened to a flight into a "death trap", but they accept the risk.


As usual before each flight, Oleksandr, a 51-year-old Ukrainian military pilot, swipes on the body of the Mi-8 helicopter to wish good luck for himself and his teammates. Fortunately, what they needed because the flight's destination was the Azovstal metallurgical plant, the last fortress in the city of Mariupol besieged by Russian troops, attacked for weeks by the Russian army before "falling" in mid-May. .


For Ukrainian pilots, that place is likened to a "death trap". Several crew members of the Ukrainian army were killed while participating in a resupply mission to the Mariupol stronghold. Even so, the resupply mission for Azovstal was determined to be necessary in the context of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers there running out of ammunition, food, drinking water and medicine.


Oleksandr only made one flight to Mariupol. For him, it was the most challenging task of his 30-year career. He shared that he was willing to take risks because he did not want the soldiers in Azovstal to feel abandoned.


Fly into the "death trap"


Sitting in the cockpit, Oleksandr felt restless, a few minutes that felt like hours.


"It was very scary. Explosions kept going around and the next shell could land right where you were," Oleksandr said. He recalled the moment the helicopter was hit by fire from a Russian warship off the coast of Mariupol.


The impulse caused by the explosion knocked the helicopter over like a toy, but Oleksandr was able to control it in time to let the helicopter escape. After that, Oleksandr let the helicopter fly at a speed of 220 km / h at an altitude of only about 3 meters, except when it had to fly over power lines.


Another helicopter also joined the mission with his helicopter, but unfortunately that helicopter "once gone and never returned". Oleksandr said that the pilot of the ill-fated helicopter contacted via radio to announce it was about to run out of fuel and that was the last contact between them.


A military intelligence officer who took part in the first resupply mission for Mariupol also recounted that one helicopter was shot down, the other two never returned and were considered "missing". The officer said that when he was on the mission, he wore civilian clothes with the idea that he could blend in with civilians if he survived a helicopter crash. "We all know that it could be a one-way flight that doesn't return," he said.


During nearly 3 months from March to mid-May, 16 Mi-8 helicopters carried out a total of 7 supply missions, carrying soldiers, food, drinking water, medicine, weapons and equipment. to the besieged force at Azovstal. Each helicopter can carry 30 soldiers or 4 tons of cargo at a time. In some cases, pilots were given only a few hours' notice of their mission.


In addition to supplies, helicopters are also tasked with transporting wounded soldiers out of the besieged area. Vladislav Zahorodnii, a 22-year-old corporal who was seriously injured while fighting in Mariupol, was one of the lucky soldiers who was successfully evacuated from Azovstal on March 31. He was taken to a Mi-8 helicopter. The helicopter was hit by a shell on its way out, causing it to lose one of its engines. Fortunately, the helicopter was still able to continue flying with the remaining engine. After 80 minutes, the helicopter landed safely in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine.


This supply operation is said to have helped Ukrainian forces in Mariupol hold out for weeks against attacks by Russian and separatist forces, making Mariupol a symbol of Ukraine's resistance. The operation only stopped until more than 2,500 soldiers entrenched in Azovstal received orders to stop fighting to save the lives of wounded soldiers who did not receive medical care.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the pilots involved in the operation to supply Mariupol "heroes". "They are truly heroes, who are determined to carry out the mission despite knowing that it is a difficult and almost impossible task... We have lost a lot of pilots," the Ukrainian leader said.

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