HISTORY

lots trained to fly at night some missions were

flown partially during the daylight. The natural

and man made obstacles they avoided under

different circumstances were now used as

a concealment from the Russian troops equipped with the portable missiles.

Seven missions

The facts about the missions were summarized by General Major Kyrylo Budanov.

As we mentioned earlier, sever missions in

total were flown. Pairs of Mi-8 participated in

six missions. One mission was flown by four

Mi-8 escorted by a Mi-24 which would provide

the covering fire if needed. All supplies were

successfully delivered however on the return

evacuation flights two Mi-8 were shot down.

It happened during the fifth and seventh missions. On the last mission a rescue Mi-8 was

dispatched to help the downed aircraft. The

Russians however antifcipated this and managed to shot down this helicopter as well.

Besides the whole crew four memebers of the

Ukrainian Special Forces were killed.

Alltogether 16 Mi-8 and one Mi-24 took part in

the flights to Mariupol. Out of those two aircraft

were shot down and one rescue helicopter

was lost as well. Besides the supplies these

helicopters transported into the besieged city

72 members of the Azov regiment who volunteered to help their comrades. The former

unit‘s commander, Andrii Bileckyi shared some

details. One of the soldiers transported there

was a Mariupol native code named Kelt. Sadly,

he was killed in action on the second day. „He

died however as he would have wished to. He

told to many of his friends that he wanted to

die at home. He was killed in the street where the house he was born and brought up in

stood. He died right in the heart of his little

homeland.“ said Bileckyi. He also stated that

on one of the last flights five civilian medical

volunteer personnel from Dnipro participated.

There were an anesthesiologist, two surgeons

and a nurse. „I hope one day I will be able to

publish their names. They are the real heros to

me.“ added Bileckyi.

to stay airborne. Their comrades flying behind

them in another helicopter were not so lucky.

After they were hit they crashed with no survivors.

Each pilot was issued a written statement saying it was solely his decision where and under

what conditions he lands. „After we were hit by

a rocket our adrenalin lever rose so we only

did what we were supposed to do. We had 20

wounded people on board. Had we landed in

the field how would we have evacuated them?

It would have been necessary to dispatch another helicopted and that was not an option.

So we continued to our refuelling spot“ said

a pilot. On board he also had 22 years old corporal Vladislav Zahorodny who had been hit

into pelvis during the Mariupol fighting and

his nervers got damaged. During the previous

evacuations his was passed three times for an

airlift. This was his first helicopter flight ever.

A week later Zahorodnyi met his fellow Chernihiv native who was also evacuated from Mariupol, possibly on the very last flight. He used

the codename Buffalo. During the fighting he

lost his leg and suffered some other injuries.

His evacuation details match the 51 years old

pilot’s recollections. He only revealed his first

name, Oleksandr.

He flew just one mission but considered it the

most difficult flight of his 30-years long flying

career.“We could have refused to fly but my

crew did not do it. We knew that there are people who need our help“ said Oleksandr. They

carried two tons of supplies from Dnipro and

on the return flight evacuated the wounded.

Soldier Buffalo almost did not make it. He was

lying in the corner of the truck a was too weak

to draw attention to himself.

He was already giving up the idea of being

flown to safety when some one yelled“ „You

left a soldier behind!“ The put him on the top

of the other wounded as there was no room

left. They were shot at after the take off and

they were told later that the pilot evaded the

missile launched from the ship. Looking out

through the small window Buffalo noticed that

they were flying below the treetops. The flight

T-80 tanks belonging to the 36th Marine Brigade abandoned in Mariupol.

description matches Oleksandr’s testimony.

While they were offloanding and loading the

helicopter we remained in our seats. There

were explosions around us and the chopper

was shaking. It was really scary. It took only

20 minutes but to me it felt like two hours“, he

recalled the moments spent on the ground. After the take off he headed over the sea. „I noticed the Russian ship and realized they can hit

us. But my body reacted faster than the brain

registered the danger. There were explosions

nearby. The blast waves were shaking us as

a toy“ he described. His evasive maneovres got

the helicopte our of the dangerous zone. Then

he rushed at 220 kph close to the ground jumping over the electrical lines. After 80 minutes

they arrived in Dnipro. There he was told that

the evacuees want to speak with him. He expected them to curse him out for a bumpy ride

but when he opened the door they thanked him

unanimously.

Sadly even during this flight the second helicopter was lost. Its pilot’s last report stated the

position seven kilometers from the front line

with the remaing 250 liters of fuel.“That was

three times less than our remaining fuel so

I assume they had been hit and damaged. Those were the last words I heard from my friend“, added Oleksandr. After the last mission it

became too dangerous to continue flying them

and they had to be stopped. These seven brave

flights however managed to be recorded in the

history of the air warfare.

Hits and losses

Step by step the Russians learned what was

going on and tightened the front line around

Mariupol. Testimonies of the pilots who took

part in the fifth and seventh missions that suffered losses, appeared in the Ukrainian media.

„We felt the highest level of stress while walking towards our helicopter ready to take off.

Once we were airborne we all knew we had

a job to do and focused to do it as best as we

could“ said a pilot who did not wish that his

name was revealed. According to the testimony of one of his passengers he flew the fifth

mission in the end of March. „When we arrived

in Mariupol we were in the state of euphoria“

described the pilot. But it was not okay. On

the return flight they covered only six kilometers in three minutes when they were hit by a

portable ground-to-air missile which put one

engine out of order. Regardless they managed

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INFO Eduard

Conditions in Azovstal were documented by a member of the Azov Regiment with the codename Orest.

September 2022