- Title: Ukrainian helicopter pilots fly low, run risks
- Date: 1st October 2023
- Summary: EAST UKRAINE (SEPTEMBER 29, 2023) (REUTERS) PILOTS IN COCKPIT (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) 22-YEAR-OLD HELICOPTER PILOT, OLEH (NO LAST NAME GIVEN), SAYING: "Yesterday was a very difficult flight. We were forced to land in the field four times. The missiles and guided bombs were launched at our helicopters. Yesterday’s flight was the flight when I was most scared and I had the m
- Embargoed: 15th October 2023 14:10
- Keywords: Helicopters Russian invasion War in Ukraine
- Location: EAST UKRAINE / UNKNOWN LOCATION, UKRAINE
- City: EAST UKRAINE / UNKNOWN LOCATION, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA001604530092023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ukrainian military helicopter pilot Oleh, 22, has become used to flying low over fields and woods to track targets in the war to destroy and evict Russian invaders.
All too aware of the risks of low altitudes, he nonetheless presses on, establishing and hunting down enemy positions.
"Yesterday was a very difficult flight. We were forced to land in a field four times. Missiles and guided bombs were launched at our helicopters," Oleh acknowledges, seated at the controls of his Soviet-designed Mi-8 aircraft.
"That flight was the one that has scared me the most. And I had the most adrenaline. But, in the end, I had great satisfaction that the target was destroyed."
Oleh guides his aircraft cautiously through wooded areas, barely clearing trees before opening fire.
His helicopter missions, he said, target mostly infantry, but also reinforced enemy positions "and sometimes vehicles. But mostly infantry".
Singling out a target, he says, involves adjusting to the right or left and engaging in a "hill" manoeuvre. That means staying low, gradually gaining altitude, launching missiles and then turning away to either side and descending once again.
Ukraine has benefited from weapons deliveries from the United States and its allies as it presses on with its three-month counteroffensive in the east and south of the country.
Oleh dreams of the day when he will get the opportunity to fly a U.S. aircraft.
"Of course, we would like to get American equipment -- a Black Hawk, for example," he said. "It is newer, more powerful and can carry much better weapons to inflict maximum losses on the enemy."
(Production: Anna Voitenko, Andrii Pryimachenko, Felix Hoske) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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