HISTORY

Supply and evacuation flights to Mariupol were really low-level flights.

Ukrainian Mi-8MSB-V helicopters in a shot before the war.

During one mission to Mariupol, Mi-8 helicopters were also accompanied by one Mi-24 attack helicopter as fire support.

September 2022

Besides the arms and ammunition the food

and medicine were carried on the flights to

Mariupol. They took off at 3:30 in the morning.

Flint was facing „Sophie’s choice“ where to sit

in the helicopter. He could sit next to the fuel

tank and if the helicopter was hit he would be

instantly killed. Or he could sit on the ammunition boxes and in case of crash he would break

all his limbs as a minimum. „We realized this

can be a one way flight and were prepared not

to return“, said Flint. At the same time they

realized that the besieged Ukrainian soldiers

desperately needed their help and once they

were airborne the worries dissipated.

First the Mi-8 helicopters landed right near the

front line, at the field base where they refuelled. Then they rushed throught the night at

220 kph and 5 meters above the ground. The

pilots had to escape the enemy radar. On the

other hand they had to dribble among trees

and electrical poles. The moment of surprise

worked though and the helicopters safely reached Mariupol.

The pilots landed in Azovstal steelworks area

which is 11 square kilometers. There was

a 24 km long network of the concrete shelters and tunnels underneath, this was the best

protected place in the whole Mariupol. There

was a field hospital underground from which

the helicopters were to evacuate the gravely

wounded soldiers. The pilots had to seek the

landing area which was the least littered by

debris and craters. Then the factory defenders

emerged from the underground, off loaded the

supplies and loaded 16 wounded soldiers who

were brought on trucks. It all took approximately 15-20 minutes and all that time the helicopters were running their engines ready to

take off immediately if the danger presented

itself. When the wounded were on board the

defenders had to camouflage the helicopters‘

departure. They commenced a wild gunfire at

the Russian positions to distract the enemy‘s attention. During this shoot out the helicopters disappeared unnoticed flying close to the

ground.

Without being fired at on the return flight they

again landed near the front line to refuel and

at 7:30 am landed at Dnipro. The whole mission lasted four hours. „These are the exeptional emotions when you are handing over the

wounded to the doctors‘ hands and you realized you achieved something absolutely impossible. You feel happiness and pride of your

people“ described Flint his emotional state after the landing.

Further missions were more and more difficult to fly. During the second flight the Russians were shooting at the helicopter, its pilot

however managed to successfully land at the

refueling spot. That place kept changing as

well as the helicopters‘ flight routes. Sometimes they flew over the land, another time they

flew over the sea and returned to the land having made a wide turn. Flint recalled how during one mission the Ukrainian helicopter flew

very close to the water surface between two

patrolling Russian ships. Due to the lack of pi-

INFO Eduard

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