Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, World News
Abbi Murray
Against all odds, Ukraine’s fighter jet pilots appear to be holding up against the Russian enemy, despite being outnumbered five to one.
Since the Russian invasion began a month ago, Moscow has failed to establish air superiority and progress now appears to have stalled, suggesting a speedy victory is no longer a possibility.
Much of this comes down to the bravery and skill of Ukrainian fighter pilots.
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The New York Times was recently given access to Ukrainian air force pilots at an undisclosed airbase, with the aim of providing a platform for the brave soldiers to tell their stories.
Andriy, 25, whose surname and rank have been kept secret, provided them with an insight into the terrifying events that have captured the world's attention over past weeks.
He recalled not being informed of his mission until he was actually in the air in his Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet.
“I don’t do any checks. I just take off,” he added. “Every time when I fly, it’s for a real fight.
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"In every fight with Russian jets, there is no equality. They always have five times more planes in the air.”
“I mostly have tasks of hitting airborne targets, of intercepting enemy jets,” he explained. “I wait for the missile to lock on my target. After that, I press ‘fire’.”
He described the joyous feeling of shooting down Russian aircraft, stating: “I am happy that this plane will no longer bomb my peaceful towns. And as we see in practice, that is exactly what Russian jets do.
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“I had situations when I was approaching a Russian plane to a close enough distance to target and fire. I could already detect it, but was waiting for my missile to lock on while at the same time from the ground they tell me that a missile was fired at me already.
“The time I have to save myself depends on how far away the missile was fired at me and what kind of missile. I can still feel a huge rush of adrenaline in my body because every flight is a fight.”
After wanting to be a pilot since childhood, Andriy graduated from the Kharkiv Air Force School. However, he never thought he would be in the situation he is in now.
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“Neither me nor my friends ever thought we would have to face a real war. But that’s not how it turned out,” he said.
Andriy has managed to relocate his wife to another area of Ukraine that is currently secure. He telephones her only after he has returned safely from a sortie, but never before.
“I only have to use my skills to win,” Andriy told The New York Times. “My skills are better than the Russians. But on the other hand, many of my friends, and even those more experienced than me, are already dead.”
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information